Star Gate

"Sometimes you're shrewd, sometimes you're a fool!" Hong Yitang sniffed. "The more you pretend not to care, the more easily you'll lose something. Alright, that's enough. You need to incorporate more water energy if you want to stabilize the river. There isn't enough at the moment.

"Whether it's water of chaos or nature, equilibrium can be slightly upended when it comes to the water element. Having more of that element will make it easier to integrate everything. Water is an all-encompassing element."

Li Hao blinked and found that the suggestion made a lot of sense. He extracted some water energy and added it into the river. There was no need to say or question anything. Even when Hong Yitang was much weaker than him now, he was still willing to pay special attention to the man's words.

The river seemed to flow more smoothly now. Hong Yitang closed his eyes and focused on his vibrating body. Endless dao strength circulated him. At the same time, he marveled at the kid becoming more timid the stronger he became.

It wasn't that he was afraid of the enemy, but that he didn't want more people around him to die.

Since he cared, why pretend not to?

A faint smile appeared on Hong Yitang's face. The Earthturner Sword Method... would be known throughout the world again!

......

The river of stars naturally fluctuated less with Hong Yitang's addition. Although his strength was mediocre, the sword character was special. Added to that his unique perspective on great dao, one had to say that his participation was a great boon to Li Hao.

That had seemed to be the case since a very long time ago.

Yuan Shuo had set off by then, leaving Li Hao on his own. He'd gotten to know the simple and honest Earthturner Sword in Battle Heaven, and the senior swordsman had given Li Hao a lot of support and instruction ever since.

His teacher was gone at the moment again, as usual! Hong Yitang had stepped forward once more. He was nowhere to be found when merit and rewards were being handed out, but everywhere to be seen when disaster was at hand. Li Hao very much respected the man, but who could say if that was good or bad?

The river settled down. An expanse of stars sparkled overhead in unbounded beauty.

"Martial Uncle..." Li Hao suddenly broke the silence at this time, drawing a puzzled tilt of Hong Yitang's head.

"Do you think there are stars that belong to teacher and the others among the gathering up there?"

Teacher...

Hong Yitang looked at him—there was a lost look in Li Hao's eyes. He seemed to be searching for his teacher's star. Hong Yitang sighed to himself.

Do you see this, Yuan Shuo? Your disciple is not as strong as you imagined after you died fighting Saints. He's very fragile!

All of you guys are gone—not just you, but Hou Xiaochen, Yu Luocha, Liu Long...

All of them have fallen in battle, which is potentially a cost too hard to bear for him. Perhaps he's lived in regret all this time and searched for you ever since. Is there a star that belongs to you guys among these hundreds of millions?

I don't know!

But Hong Yitang remained utterly calm. "There must be. I see many that haven't been lit yet—too many! There must be one that belongs to them, perhaps even multiple ones! It's actually very easy to resurrect your master..."

"Very easy?" Li Hao blinked.

"Of course!" Hong Yitang nodded. "When you grow strong enough to locate all of the stars, you don't need to do anything then. Just have all of the cultivators within Silver Moon world open their dao meridians and light their stars. You can easily pick out which ones have not lit up then. They will belong to those who have not fully died."

Very easy?

Li Hao's jaw dropped. "Are you... kidding... me..." he managed after a while. "Everyone in the world being a Mountain and Sun... ten billion Mountains and Suns... Martial Uncle, let's talk about something more practical!"

Your idea isn't feasible at all. You might as well tell me to take over the world and dao universe. You're so unreliable!

But come to think of it, it's... true. If everyone has opened a dao meridian, those that they haven't opened can be traced to their common origin. And the ones left after that... will belong to the dead martial masters, no?

That makes sense!

Except, Li Hao started sweating when he looked at the scores of dark stars in front of him.No, Ole Hong is really unreliable now!

The young man was in much better spirits now that he had someone to talk to. "Martial Uncle, I've only coalesced one-third of the river. There's a lot left. You probably won't be able to endure the strain either, right?"

"Definitely not." Hong Yitang was all seriousness this time. "We need to improve further! Lin Hongyu and my stars are all in the river. We need to enter Fused Dao! Panther needs to be this cultivation level two. Three Fused Dao still might not be enough."

Three Fused Dao cultivators may not be able to devour the tangled mess of great dao power either.

"You infused some of the stars with dao strength as well, didn't you?"

"Yep."

"Then continue to do so, and take advantage of this opportunity to transmit more dao strength out. Haven't some people of Evenround Martial been asleep all this time? Capsize Sea and some of the other Saints are yet to switch their daos, right? You can make use of this opportunity to awaken them and change their daos. While transmitting dao strength will create some upheaval, it will also complete multiple goals at once!

"That's one hundred combined Apexes, Immortals, and Saints—they can withstand a lot of dao strength. Their bodies can endure the energy, you won't be forcing it on them, do you understand the difference? Forceful infusion easily leads to loss of control, but these people were Apexes, Immortals, and Saints to begin with. That won't happen with them!"

"Should I do so now?" Li Hao found the idea very appealing.

"Yes!" Hong Yitang nodded. "I know that you don't want people to know what you're doing, that's fine. So long as there are people on the outside willing to guide whoever you're targeting, the recipients will be able to change their dao without personal guidance from you."

Li Hao frowned. Who could facilitate someone else to change their dao? It was too difficult for Saints to make the switch! Zhang An was a likely candidate for the job when he was present, so now who could he tap?

Apexes and Immortals were easy to manage, the handful of Saints were incredibly difficult!

"If you can't manage it, then revive those of Evenround Martial first. If that's out of the question, then keep in mind that a lot of Battle Heaven soldiers have revitalized! You don't have to go at it alone..."

"The disturbance will be too great that way!" Li Hao said softly.

"Do you think the disturbance is small now? A ceremony for the entire world over three days... Do you think everyone's an idiot?" Hong Yitang looked at Li Hao. "Don't bury your head in the sand. Although people will also think that you're doing something at the moment, it's enough that they don't know what exactly you're doing!

"In fact, do revive some people! Perhaps you can fool Zheng Yu and the others, having them relax their guard if they think you're doing all this to change people's great dao and revitalize more ancients!"

"That's right!" Li Hao nodded with renewed trust. "What does the martial uncle think of Lin Hongyu?"

"......" Hong Yitang looked at him with a meaningful smile. "She's your wife, but you're asking me? How would I know? There would be a problem if I knew!"

"......" This was awkward! "I did what I did because I had no other choice. I don't actually know much about her."

"I don't judge personal relationships," Hong Yitang responded after some thought. "If I view her from the greater picture and perspective of the current state of affairs, from personal strength to her ability to assist you... There is no problem with any of that! She is a good candidate! Have you fallen in love with anyone at present?"

"......"

"If not, then she is a good choice."

"Really?" Li Hao mulled over it. "What if I don't have feelings for her?"

"That's no big deal. Arranged marriages were the primary arrangement in Skystar Dynasty's hundreds of years of existence. Love matches were very rare. Feelings naturally develop when you spend more time together."

"......"

I see, so this is what you think about the matter. I shouldn't have asked!

Li Hao tore through the void to contact Lin Hongyu, having her put everything in order to resurrect the Evenround Martial students and change their dao.

......

Lin Hongyu heaved a sigh of relief when she heard Li Hao's latest plans. Her presence was very disordered, but she was steadily growing stronger.

A while after she transmitted a string of instructions, Jiang Yingli walked out with a large sum of student puppets.

"The marquis is going to revive you and change your dao." Lin Hongyu cut to the chase. "But the bodies of the puppets are too strong, so we need Saints to help reforge them into your personal weapons!

"The Saints currently have time on their hands, so you guys can pick whoever you'd like to help craft your physical body! Expend all of the Water of Life, Immortal strength, and energy stones you need. The marquis will pay for all of it!

"After you change your dao, the marquis has given orders that you can follow Jiang Yingli if you'd like to stay. She will be the commander of the academy troops..."

"The academy troops?" Jiang Yingli repeated with surprise.

"Yes, that's the name for now. We'll consolidate and standardize everything later! All of the troops from the Battle Heaven Army, Watercloud Army, Barren Army as well will be integrated into one whole. Since you've joined us, that makes you a Hao Cosmos citizen!"

A Hao Cosmos citizen?

Jiang Yingli suppressed an eye roll. Li Hao's naming sense was the same as the Human King—completely lackadaisical! Did all these people have to make their own name part of it, to show how special they were?

Wouldn't it be better to be a Cat Planet citizen?

Forget it, cats reminded her of that invincible cat. That one was also of the same nature.

Birds of a feather flock together!

Regardless, Jiang Yingli was very happy that more resurrections were planned today. She was in no hurry since she'd been revived, but her fellow classmates were still puppets.

"Alright, I'll seek out the Saints right now..."

The Saints were very willing to give face to imperial descendants, not to mention that these were orders from Li Hao. There was even less of a problem when they learned that the Skystar Commander Office was providing all of the resources. It was just one hundred or so people—that was a fair amount, but there were a couple of Saints available. One person handling less than three dozen would take care of them all.

The puppets were highly excited and darted out with Jiang Yingli. Lin Hongyu chuckled to see them go.