The Red Moon master moved extremely swiftly, crossing the chaos with one step and vanishing in the blink of an eye. He headed straight for Skyward Region.

Meanwhile, Director General Zhao carefully returned to the world gate. He didn’t dare move and waited, still occasionally farting from terror. The veteran politician was well aware of what the lofty personages in charge cared about.

Threats and browbeating were ineffective. But tarnishing them? That, they did care about. One disgusting fart would cause them to brandish their sleeves and leave. Granted, farting without reason might also result in a fatal palm strike.

But since the Red Moon master had scared the other into losing control over his bodily functions, then there was no helping it. The wandering cultivator could only give the rat a wide berth to avoid being tainted.

......

Director General Zhao spent a while being scared. He blinked when Li Hao appeared in front of him. “What are you doing out here...”

“A powerhouse of that level has no interest in keeping an eye from the shadows,” Li Hao smiled. “If he’d sensed anything off and truly missed that we were here, he would’ve charged in a long time ago. Why would he hide and lurk?”

That would be underestimating the Red Moon master. If he’d guessed that Li Hao was here, why would he bother to stay in hiding? He wouldn’t care about killing a first rank chaos beast if he could kill Li Hao. He wouldn’t stay his hand even if the Dragon master was here.

Thus, his lack of presence meant that he was well and truly gone.

“That was terrifying!” Li Hao breathed out, then grinned. “He should’ve just come from Dragon major world. It looks like those guys are actually contacting the Dragon master. I’m just not certain if the Dragon master has agreed to their terms or not.

“And... they were able to keep their movements hidden from the eighth ranks in the other three regions! It also seems like delving into the river of memories, sampling them, and imitating the great dao really can work so long as we don’t fight!”

Imitations were another trick up their sleeves now!

Li Hao’s eyes darted around. Although the Red Moon master hadn’t paid much attention to a first rank, it was the biggest victory that an eighth rank with natural keenness of eye couldn’t see through the true nature of things.

The young man grinned widely. I’m so much more confident in our proposed plan now! The Red Moon master was the perfect examiner. Since we passed his test, that means this plan works! It also represents that the power of time is very strong.

This is just a supplemental use of it.

“It really does stink though!” Li Hao suddenly coughed. “Try not to emit that next time, Director General Zhao.”

The director general didn’t know what to say. The hell man, didn’t I do it for you? Do you think I don’t know that it stinks!

“We almost lost everything here.” Void said with lingering fear. “We’re far from being able to match an eighth rank. Everything would’ve been over if we hadn’t sensed some hints of him beforehand.

“We absorbed a large sum of Red Moon power, but never cleansed ourselves after it. Although we can sense him ahead of time... the same should go for him despite his lack of a dao universe. We got away because he didn’t pay more attention to what he picked up on. Is there a way to fully cleanse ourselves, Hao Moon?”

Both of the two had walked life and death on separate occasions, but they were yet to fully purify themselves of the Red Moon power! If it wasn’t for Director General Zhao irritating the other with a fart, then they would’ve met their doom during this encounter!

“No worries, we’ll have Gan Wuliang wash us a few times later on. The Red Moon power will slowly dissipate from us then!” Li Hao laughed.

“Can he do it?”

“He won’t have much of a problem with it.”

“If we really can’t help it, we can just undergo the thunder tribulation a few times to cleanse ourselves!”

Li Hao said nothing else; he looked in the direction of the Red Moon master’s disappearance. This eighth rank was sure working hard. He’d even visited Dragon Region in person to convince the Dragon master. He’d really gone to a lot of effort.

But without a dao universe... would he receive New Martial’s after they killed the Human King? What was he working so hard for?

The more effort the Red Moon master exerted, the more he had certain motives in mind. The Skycloud master needed to be careful in his partnership with the man.

Granted, Skycloud was nothing good either. It might actually be good if the Red Moon master was the death of him.

“C’mon, let’s take a look at Phoenix major world!” Li Hao proposed as this was no place to linger in. “Apparently outsiders can enter that world. Panther, set course for that seventh rank world. Let’s get the lay of the land. If it’s a suitable place, then it may be the first seventh rank major world we target!”

He and Void working in tandem could steal a few whiskers off a seventh rank tiger’s face. But eighth rank? Forget about it.

And perhaps they could conquer a few more worlds along the way. He’d set up the burgeoning form of the river of time, enabling communications no matter how far away they were. Transportation would even be possible. Although there were no spatial dao as part of his river yet, it wouldn’t be long until that was gathered.

If they encountered no dangers along the way, then the two masters of dao could also travel through the chaos via their dao universes.

......

As Li Hao’s group headed toward Phoenix major world.

Blazing Sun Region.

The Human King furrowed his brows and looked at Blazing Sun major world up ahead. Supreme Zhang typically never left New Martial, but he was here at the moment. They were present without the Ash Emperor, just the two of them to scope out the situation.

“We missed our timing!” the supreme said softly. “This guy recruited some powerhouses from an unknown source and there might even be other eighth ranks on that world!”

He flicked a glance at the Human King. “You were the one who insisted on waiting for Li Changsheng to return. If we hadn’t, we might’ve been able to force our way to victory. But there are new heavyweights here now, possibly from outside Thunder Region.”

“And you’re blaming me?” The Human King rolled his eyes. “You agreed when I said we should wait. You really know how to shift blame. Trust me when I say I’ll make this public and show everyone how irresponsible you are!”

The supreme didn’t know what to say. The guy was truly odious sometimes.

“It looks like the Blazing Sun master is very nervous,” he suddenly laughed. “But bringing in powerhouses outside the four regions may not be a good idea. It looks like Skyward’s dao universe poses too much temptation...”

The Human King nodded, then laughed. “That’s good!” A meaningful look enters his eyes. “It’s more fun with a few more heavyweights around. Otherwise we’re just beating up our own all the time. How boring!”

“We’re not yet eighth rank!” The supreme raised a brow. “We should enter eighth rank first!”

“What’s the rush?” chuckled the Human King. “Eighth rank... It’s too hard for me and Lazy Cat to both enter eighth rank. One eighth rank world alone might not be enough. A few more powerhouses in the mix should do the trick to put both me and Big Cat in eighth rank!

“Things will be more interesting then! Otherwise, with just me in eighth rank, yin and yang might be unbalanced again!

“It’s best for them to have more powerhouses,” he cackled. “The more targets there are, the more seventh ranks New Martial can produce!”

“Are you going to be the one killing them?” laughed the supreme. “Talk in that fashion when you kill them!”

“Don’t worry, hasn’t Li Hao left Skyward?” the Human King said in measured tones. “Skyward is masterless again right now, correct?”

“Mmhmm.”

“Do you remember the fake burial mound we set up that year?”

“Eh?” The supreme arched a brow. Of course he did. They’d tricked a lot of enemies, trapping and killing them. That bought New Martial significant time to develop.

That had also been a turning point for the civilization and the key to its fast rise from oppression. And to put it bluntly, the supreme bore most of the credit for that operation. He’d led a large sum of powerhouses into the burial mound as bait, whereas Fang Ping conquered the world outside with the rest of their people.

“How about we do that again?”

The supreme sank into deep thought and looked at the Human King.

“Little Li Hao trapped a lot of powerhouses with that fake dao universe revitalization of his, including me,” commented a merry Human King. “Let’s do that ourselves, Ole Zhang. We’ll lure a bunch of people over, kill them all, and have ourselves a feast!”

“We may not be strong enough to eradicate them!” the supreme answered solemnly.

“And how are we not strong enough?” the Human King smiled. “Don’t worry, you won’t be the vanguard this time. Big Cat and I will move out together. You don’t have to go—you only have one target. Take people with you and conquer Skycloud!”

“Skycloud?”

“Yep!” The Human King grinned. “Everyone says that I want to take Blazing Sun, that I can’t enter eighth rank without Blazing Sun. Why must I have Blazing Sun? New Martial will have a new seventh rank or two after we take Skycloud. That’s just as nice!

“The Skycloud master is such an idiot that his own people have turned on him. It doesn't seem like he’s good for much, and now he’s throwing his lot in with Red Moon. As opposed to letting Red Moon benefit from this, we should take that world instead!”

The Human King didn’t speak of specifics because he didn’t have a plan. It was enough to have a goal in mind. How to execute on it was up to the supreme’s arrangements. Granted, he might not follow whatever the supreme set.

The Human King excelled at snap decisions. Even he himself didn’t know what he would do next, so how would the enemy know?

“Say...” A new thought struck the Human King. “If some outside powerhouses have come to Blazing Sun, does that mean there’s no one home in their worlds outside?”

“Eh?” The supreme looked back at him with exasperation. “Stop jumping from idea to idea. You’re not thinking of heading outside to ambush their homes, are you?”

“And why not?” chuckled a merry Human King. “They’re bold enough to come here, so why don’t we give them a surprise? How about you lead people into Thunder Region and ambush their homes?

“If you can’t, you can circle around Thunder Region and come around to Skyward Region, then ambush Skycloud from there. We’ll eat well if that works! And I’ll be here to be the center of attention for all powerhouses in the four regions!”

The Human King bared his teeth in a savage grin. “These guys insist on fighting me! In that case, don’t mind if I feast on their bones!”

The supreme swiftly ran some calculations and said, “Then you can only take Ash Cat with you. The rest have to stay with me. Can the two of you do it?”

One was crazy enough to do anything. One was silly enough to listen to and believe anything.