“Do you not believe me?” the Human King laughed merrily.

That’s right, I don’t. The supreme barely suppressed an eye roll. Can I believe you?

Fine, I think I might, a little.

However... I’m still a bit worried. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

“It’s not that I don’t believe you, I’m just worried you’ll do something random...”

“Pfft!” the Human King laughed. “What are you worried about? Will we be able to ruin the enemy’s plan if we don’t do something random? What’s more interesting is that Little Li Hao has gone to Dragon Region.

“This kid dared to ambush the four regions prior to this. Tell me, do you think he’ll have the balls to ambush Dragon major world if I lure all of their powerhouses here?”

“Is he strong enough to?” asked a very interested supreme.

“No, but... we should have faith in him!” The Human King grinned. “If he really can’t do it, he can just pay a bit of a price and use the star of time. It’s actually a good thing if he really does fully consume the star of time. That’s settled then!

“We’ll see if he’s bold enough. If he is, we’ll all feast together. If not, we’ll have fun ourselves since the little guy can’t do it!”

Supreme Zhang nodded, not minding what might come. Silver Moon was too weak in the end. Fang Ping was just wanting to have some fun with the other. The key was, the Silver Moon king might not understand what they wished to do as they were unable to communicate with each other.

The supreme cast his gaze into the distance. Outside the four regions, was it?

Perhaps things might be more interesting there. New Martial would not always be confined to the four regions!

......

Dragon Region, Phoenix major world.

Phoenix was the hub of commerce for the region. Although the region was overseen by chaos beasts, they had some abilities in commerce once they became intelligent.

Commerce, transactions, cultivation, recruiting powerhouses, and a major world open to the public. Those were all conditions that attracted countless powerhouses to visit. There were similar places in the other three regions, with the most notable being Skyward. However, Skyward was not under chaos beast control.

In Dragon Region, it was Phoenix that functioned in this capacity. Wandering chaos beasts, naturally born chaos beasts, those without heritages or worlds, local monster spirits, and even a portion of human wandering cultivators journeying through the regions visited the world.

The precursor was that they dared to visit such a place.

Phoenix was not opposed to human visitors, so long as they weren’t afraid of dying here or catching someone’s eye. Whether it was visiting to transact or cultivate, all were welcome.

As for why it was Phoenix and not Dragon major world, that was another display of the Dragon master’s wisdom. Dragon major world was the core of the region. There would be enormous trouble if someone broke into it.

As big as Phoenix was, it wouldn’t matter if enemies invaded a seventh rank major world. It was also close to Dragon major world. Speedy reinforcement would be hard to accomplish, but Dragon would quickly receive reports if anything happened to Phoenix. They would be able to react accordingly and decide if they wished to respond, flee, or defend.

......

Outside Phoenix major world.

Li Hao observed for a while before saying with emotion, “The Dragon master really is something! There’s more to Phoenix major world than meets the eye. It’s perfectly situated in between the major worlds of Dragon, Giant Elephant, Valiant Tiger, and Treasure.”

That made it very safe, geographically speaking.

If anyone attacked it, the four worlds could quickly surround the invader. Both offense and defense were easily at hand. Add with Phoenix itself being a major world, that made for five major worlds in the vicinity.

Clearly, this was the express purpose of the Dragon master or the Chaos Alliance. This wasn’t a natural development.

Opening up Phoenix major world not only enabled chaos beasts to communicate with each other, but also enticed some wandering chaos beasts to join. That further strengthened the chaos beast factions.

“The other three regions have similar thoughts, but no one dares open up their world,” Void nodded. “That is how Skyward became the biggest hub for the three regions!”

However, Skyward had focused on wandering cultivators and did not have a world master itself. There was a master for Phoenix.

“The key is, they permit humans to enter. Dare humans enter?” Void laughed.

A seventh rank world ruled by chaos beasts in a region that hated humans... Even if humans were traveling nearby, they would simply wander through the chaos. Who would dare enter within?

Li Hao suddenly pointed at the distance, at where a human exalted emperor was rushing toward Phoenix.

“He’s crazy, isn’t he?” Void blinked. So there really were humans that dared enter that world?

There were chaos beasts on duty at the Phoenix world gates, and strong ones at that, but they seemed to recognize the human. There were no ugly words exchanged when he landed. On the contrary, they greeted each other in a friendly manner before the human passed through.

Void looked at the world with confusion. What was going on over there?

“Humans are the dominant species of the chaos, after all.” Li Hao frowned after some thought. “There’s quite a few of them in Dragon Region. Although some human worlds are very weak, there are native humans on all worlds, including Dragon major world. It... seems normal if some are willing to work for chaos beasts.”

There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with local humans producing exalted emperors that were willing to serve chaos beasts. There were monster spirits residing on human worlds, and even Li Hao had some monster spirits serving him.

Those monster spirits likewise occupied a certain status in human society.

“So this means to say... these are traitors?” Void nodded with understanding.

“You can’t put it that way.” Li Hao shook his head. “They’ve always lived under chaos beast rule and were perhaps born to it. They’ve long accepted that their liege lord is a chaos beast and cannot fight it. If some chaos beast world masters treat them better... that would be an inevitable outcome.

“We cannot choose the circumstances that we are born into. Would you say that Panth is a traitor to its kind?”

He didn’t view these people as traitors, so long as they didn’t help chaos beasts to kill humans. Some people were born without a choice and some didn’t even know what other worlds looked like. Chaos beasts were the be all and end all in their eyes, what could they do about that?

Panther shook its tail without making a sound.

Void nodded after further thought. “That’s true...” he exhaled. “You’re right. I’ve never experienced anything like this, so I wasn’t able to put myself in their shoes. I only thought that humans who run with chaos beasts are the shame of our species.

“But if it’s as you say and they were born to this life, then... what can they do about it?” He smiled self-deprecatingly. “When I saw that human land and converse amiably with that chaos beast, I wanted to kill him! I was filled with more of an urge to kill him than I did the chaos beasts!”

“That’s normal!” Li Hao laughed. “But they’re just serving another master, so there’s nothing to it. If they help chaos beasts kill humans though, then no matter if they were forced to it or whatever, they deserve death. Of course, they won’t think that way either.”

Void nodded again, able to think much more casually on the matter. He couldn’t help but look at his friend a bit more. Li Hao sometimes had a more open mind than any of them. Anyone else might not give the others the same grace that the young man did.

“Then how do we go inside now?” Void looked into the distance. “Do we just take a look from outside, or slip inside? Will Panther pose as a chaos beast from another region or be a Dragon region local?”

He wouldn’t stop Li Hao from entering the world, but he also thought it was a waste of time.

Some of Silver Moon’s exalted emperors had already set off on their own. Some mid ranks such as Gan Wuliang and Hong Yitang led a team of exalted emperors to locate suitable worlds for their plans.

They wouldn’t take immediate action, but wait for Li Hao’s order. Each of them carried one of Li Hao’s immaterial worlds that could just barely maintain a connection with the river of time. Communication might be out of the question if they were too far away. It was only effective within a limited range.

But that in itself was impressive.

Almost all Silver Moon martial masters raised the idea of leaving. Li Hao didn’t force them to stay. Clearly, they’d taken in some of what he’d said the other day. They also hoped to make their own way and take some of the burden off Li Hao’s shoulders.

Silver Moon itself was still in Panther’s stomach. Citizens who were yet to ascend to exalted emperor were all within the world.

Li Hao wasn’t in a rush to answer his friend. He waited for a while, seeing a few more exalted emperors land on Phoenix.

“Dragon Region seems to have more exalted emperors than any other place,” he couldn’t help but say. “It’d be decent if one exalted emperor entered Skyward in a month. There’s not much going on at Phoenix either, just regular interactions. But a couple exalted emperors have come in such a short while!”

He’d thought that chaos beasts didn’t like to converse with each other, but that turned out not to be the case. Not only that, but there were monster spirit exalted emperors among their number!

Monster spirits and chaos beasts were easily identified within the chaos. Chaos beasts were nearly one with the chaos, whereas monster spirits were similar to humans in that they were slightly separated from the chaos. It took only one glance from a distance in the chaos to determine whether one was a monster spirit or chaos beast.

Phoenix not only possessed humans, but monster spirits as well. The Dragon master seemed to encompass all species in his ruling philosophy. However, given how much the region suppressed humans, they were likely very wary of that species.

Humans survived with too much vitality and numbered too many. Powerhouses easily appeared among their number.

“Panther... pose as an outsider, not one of this region. We don’t know enough about Dragon Region. We’ll hide in your stomach.”

Panther nodded, but wasn’t immensely at ease. It was used to taking orders from Li Hao. While the young man was still present, he was part of the dog’s stomach. Given that there were powerhouses all around, the dog was nervous.

“Don’t worry, I hid in your stomach too early on. That’s how we took down the Xus, remember? And now look at us gallivanting in the chaos. Weren’t you very bold back then?”

Panther remembered the incident and grinned, wagging its tail. That’s right! What was there to be afraid of?

“It’s best if we can create a complete map of Dragon Region with our excursion into Phoenix,” Li Hao continued. “Plus we should look into the precise details of each world’s strength, their number of seventh ranks, as well as... a very key point!”

Here, the young man paused.

“Is it possible that Dragon major world will leave the region? We need to keep a close eye on its movements. We can get up to small scuffles and clashes if it remains in the region, but it’ll be too hard to do anything major if it doesn’t leave.”