Star Gate

The man with a sword on his back looked in the Barren direction with a jerk of shock.

"I thought you wouldn't do so... You... are more vicious than I knew or could imagine!"

Li Hao had given orders for Lin Hongyu to massacre Divine Nation! A group of powerhouses that were Apexes at their weakest were slaughtering weaklings that weren't stronger than Mountain and Sea! One hundred people could kill several hundred thousand, if not one million Divine Nation citizens!

Bitterness and blood qi soared to the heavens! Li Hao was much more brutal and ruthless than they'd ever postulated.

Behind the man, the Moon God wheezed with anger, "Damn it, they've destroyed the faith of Divine Nation..."

This was an undeserved catastrophe! She was taking the blame for the second generation.

The real Moon God was not as useless or incompetent as the faithful thought her to be. But for the moment, the Moon God in everyone's hearts was the queen. The queen had lost again and again, lowering her worshippers' expectations time and time again.

Utter devastation was upon them now! All of the accumulated resentment, dissatisfaction, and despair exploded out of the people. It tipped over in a collapse of their faith.

The man with a sword frowned slightly as well. He'd suffered a lapse in judgment this time. He'd witnessed all of Li Hao's movements to date, but to order an entire nation to be put to the sword...

This did not fulfill the man's mental image of a swordsman and was far at odds with the image that Li Hao normally displayed. The young man was quite stony-hearted with this decision—even more so than the Human King!

As relentless as the Human King had been, he wouldn't have butchered civilians that didn't pose a threat...

"Li Hao!" murmured the man. "Moon God, have the second generation run away as quickly as possible. A collapse of faith and the demise of Divine Nation... Although the heavenly will favors her, a conflict between faith and the heavens will appear..."

The Moon God didn't dare object and quickly transmitted some of her thoughts to the queen on the ground.

......

At the moment, the Barren wasteland.

The queen had swiftly grown stronger after being infused with a large sum of lunar strength. However, her face slackened when a loud detonation sounded within her body. Divine strength began collapsing within her!

Li Hao's eyes quickly flicked to the other two divine spirits when he noted the development. They were equally stricken by the same changes happening to them!

The young man's sword flashed out like a killer in the night; a myriad daos struck in unison!

Pfft!He ran through the god of prophecy first and whispered in his ear, "Thank the Moon God for me. Thank her for sending me so much lunar strength..."

Crunch!

The god's eyes widened as his body fell apart.

Li Hao whirled around and smashed the goddess of luck to smithereens with a loud punch. "The Initial Martial god warned you last time," he shook his head. "Weaklings should not try to change the fates of those stronger. You should've listened!"

Bam!

The goddess blew apart!

Two divine spirits were dead in the blink of an eye—they weren't fully dead since their dao star wasn't in the dao universe. But at the very least, they wouldn't be able to revive in the short term!

The queen continuously vomited blood as she gaped with incredulity. A thought repeated itself in her mind—run!

The two New Martial Saints cursed with abject fury! Why was this happening?! The queen had just demonstrated incomparable strength, but three divine spirits were crippled in the blink of an eye! Damn it, were divine spirits all made of paper?!

Too much had changed in a split second. On the outside perimeter, Ying Hongyue exhaled noisily.

I knew it!

Li Hao was growing ever more sinister. Something must have happened to Divine Nation to cause their foundation of faith to collapse.

More than twelve Saints had attacked the young man; only three were left before anyone was the wiser. Who knew if these three would be getting away either?

"Run!" Ying Hongyue grunted. He could see that the remaining two were hesitant. "We won't be able to go anymore if we don't leave soon! Once he kills those people and completes digesting the heavenly will... we'll be next!"

The two Saints' eyes widened with horror; ghastly screams rang out. One of the two remaining Saints inside the domain had just died to the young man. The other was accumulating energy and looked to be preparing a self-detonation!

They were pretty much dead. The other two hesitated no longer and fled for their lives alongside Ying Hongyue. Panic-stricken, they could still make neither heads nor tails what had happened. There'd been so many powerhouses in that group! Killing even an Empyrean King was perfectly within reach!

How come everyone was gone all of a sudden??

The heavenly will hadn't been able to overcome Li Hao either. On the contrary, everyone it'd blessed had ended up dead instead!

An intense explosion rocked the land behind them. The last New Martial Saint had chosen to self-detonate!

The queen continued to cough up blood. Just when she thought this was the end of the road for her, that she would die here, Li Hao suddenly smiled and said softly, "Expel the heavenly will from your body and I'll let you go!"

The queen blinked.

She thrust a sword out from her body without second word; a tiny gap opened in the void in response. The heavenly will wanted to dart through it, but Li Hao suppressed it in the next second!

The queen darted out of the opening without a second glance!

The void immediately returned to its prior state when she was gone.

"Your Lordship!" exclaimed the redwood tree with surprise. It was close to the opening and had seen everything. Why had Li Hao let the queen go?

"She's a good person!" Li Hao laughed.

"......" No one knew what to say.She was the one to bring everyone together to kill you!

"She's a good person who sent me the bodies of twelve Saints to consolidate the new world with! She summoned more heavenly will for me and brought me large quantities of lunarpower. She is the Moon God so long as she is alive!"

Li Hao threw his head back with laughter, roaring his mirth at the sky. His glee seemed so unholy that it was like he was possessed.

The Moon God? The first god in the world? How about you guys kill the queen yourself? If not, she's gonna be the death of you guys sooner or later! I can't wait to see that.

You've contributed endless lunar strength and the power of faith for this battle, but it's all mine now! If it wasn't for her demonstrating peerless battle strength, then those New Martial Saints may not have dared to join the fight. I made out like a bandit in one fell swoop!

The queen is a good person! She's given me so much from the very beginning.

She's suffered a setback this time, but she might be back. I wonder if she'll bring as many presents for me next time!

Li Hao beamed widely from ear to ear!

......

Upon the silver moon.

The Moon God didn't say a word. The man with a sword on his back slightly raised an eyebrow and didn't say anything either. Li Hao... might actually succeed in his endeavor.

It was quite the surprising outcome. The key was that although the second generation Moon God had received heaven's favor and lunar strength—in fact, she'd received everything she needed—she was still spontaneously defeated without recourse!

How... dispiriting this was!

"Let's just kill her," said the Moon God after a long moment. "If this continues, the Moon God will become the number one laughingstock in the world!

Damn these circumstances! In the eyes of Divine Nation citizens, the Moon God had become trash that lost every engagement she was involved in! Their faith had completely collapsed!

The Moon God hadn't ever suffered in such a manner!

......

The Barren wasteland.

A chaos giant stood beneath the skies—Li Hao. He was busy roaring with laughter.

The little sword that the queen had forced out of her body still hovered in the air. It twitched with anger as the heavenly will was still present. Almost everyone it'd blessed was dead.

"It's time for you to be on your way as well!" Li Hao looked at the sword of heaven, then looked up at the void again. The silver moon had vanished. Only the little sword of heaven remained in this place.

As for the heavenly will in the outside world, it'd vanished as well. Perhaps it'd gone to find new candidates for its favor, perhaps it'd gone to search out Lin Hongyu. Or perhaps it was looking for Ying Hongyue... Whatever it was, there was no more heavenly will gathering in the outside world now.

"Panth, eat it!" Li Hao turned to the black dog, who looked blankly back at him.

You've already devoured the will of chaos. What do you want me to swallow the little sword of heaven for?

As these thoughts ran through the dog's mind, Li Hao's presence free fell and he spat out the white horse. Everyone jerked with shock. What was this now?

If Li Hao swallowed both the will of chaos and heaven, he might really be able to create a small world that belonged to him alone with that combination. But after killing all of his enemies, he chose to regurgitate the will of chaos instead.

Redwood and the others were highly surprised. They looked at Panther, but no one voiced their confusion. Was there a point to forcefully increasing the dog's strength?

"There's no rush!" Li Hao smiled. "If I swallow the heavenly will after swallowing the will of chaos, I really will find it hard to walk around in this world. If Panther swallows it... it'll find its movements constrained, not me!

"The heavenly will is muddle-headed like a child. If I swallow the portion that I beat up today, the part that wasn't beaten may not remember what took place."

That's... treating the heavenly will like an idiot, not like a child.The group didn't know what to say.

Li Hao smiled widely at them.Yep, I'm treating it exactly like an idiot.

"It won't know who I am once I change my presence. I could be Li Hao, Wang Hao, or Zhang Hao..."

The heavenly will wasn't fully mature yet, so what were they afraid of? Swallowing the heavenly will would incorporate that presence into him. That would be how the heavenly will remembered him.

"Swallow it, Panth, we have things to do!"

More things to do?

Panther said no more and howled at the sky, erupting with the force of devouring. It swallowed the white horse that'd just been spat out and started fighting the heavenly will again.

Li Hao ignored it, focusing on his presence that continued declining. He'd been on par with an Empyrean King before, but now continued to free fall.

A figure rapidly approached them from a distance—the old turtle.

"Bad news, Tranquil Star's been taken..." It called when it was still far away, highly nervous at how the news would be received. Numerous injuries were visible when it landed; its armor had broken in many places.

"Ah... Zheng Yu's replica showed up at the Tranquil Star ruins and I was no match for it. I..."

I couldn't fight it, so I ran.

It would be dead without a doubt if it didn't run! But this counted as desertion as it'd abandoned its post. In New Martial, it would swiftly be sentenced for execution.

Hence, the old turtle was extremely uneasy at the moment.