Star Gate-Chapter 1451: Verifying the Dao of an Exalted Emperor (III)

Chapter 1451: Verifying the Dao of an Exalted Emperor (III)
Li Hao continued to grow older in the river of chaos and stumble his way forward. Step by step, he walked toward the end of his life.
His presence decayed until it was almost nonexistent. The young man panted heavily, looking ahead with a smile. All of his teeth had fallen out by this point.
So this is what I will look like this when I’m old, even though I’m a cultivator? I thought cultivators would still look to be in the prime of life when they died of old age, that their bodies would last for thousands of years!
The power of great dao within him gradually melted into the river. He was not born with it, so he would not depart this world with it. The cycle of life and death was only of the self, nothing else.
Li Hao’s clothes flew apart into dust. Up in the sky, Lin Hongyu’s face did not redden with the development. She simply watched quietly, gazing upon a Li Hao with a fractured body. Her expression was unreadable. Would... the young man recall everything after living another life?
Who knew?
Li Hao had reached the end of the corporeal river. Meanwhile, the river of life and death connected the world like a bridge.
The young man heaved for breath, his breathing short and rapid. It was hard to catch his breath and the scene was growing dim ahead of him. He laughed at himself, finding it tragic how one was in old age. He couldn’t hear the sounds around him or see the view in front of him. Even his body didn’t seem to be his anymore.
All of the powerhouses keeping an eye on him shared the same thoughts. So cultivators that were as strong as Li Hao would still age to this point of decline?
They would become so weak?
Even Celestial Pole was briefly horrified. Could such a thing occur to exalted emperors as well? They were powerful without parallel in life, but reduced to such a miserable end in old age!
He’d never seen a heavyweight with their lifespan fully depleted. Under normal circumstances, most powerhouses set out to search for new opportunities when they entered decline. They either broke through to a new cultivation level or died to enemies!
No one would just sit by and watch themselves die to the passage of time!
Li Hao set one foot on the bridge with incredible difficulty. The world seemed to fall apart with a roar!
The young man’s body completely rotted away, dissolving into a massive clump of mud that promptly blew away as dust. The river washed it away, leaving behind a brilliant surge of vitality that collected as a ball of radiance. This was an amalgamation of everything that Li Hao had amounted to in this life.
The ball of life moved over the bridge. Those who weren’t in the know before jerked with astonishment!
No one said a word. By now, everyone knew what Li Hao wanted to do. However, this seemed to be a very dangerous undertaking.
“Life and death... yin and yang?” Celestial Pole murmured with understanding. But this wasn’t how yin and yang were!
When the Human King reversed yin and yang, he outright resurrected the person. He didn’t have them start anew from the beginning of life. On the other hand, Li Hao... seemed to be truly walking the wheel of life and death!
So the kid wasn’t willing to tread the conventional path even after he dismissed the power of time? What an... incredibly bold individual!
The ball of radiance inched forward, shifting toward a star of black and white at the center of the bridge. It moved very slowly. Lin Hongyu was situated on top of the star and holding her breath.
Well, someone at her cultivation level didn’t need to breathe. Regardless, dense suffocation had come down around her. Could Li Hao succeed or not?
The radiance approached the star of life and death and slowly touched the black side.
Death qi wafted toward the radiance, contaminating it and turning it black. The light continued to move, albeit with arduous difficulty.
Slowly, slowly, bit by bit. It was so nerve-wracking that everyone’s hearts were in their throats.
The ball of light abruptly approached the boundary between life and death.
Lin Hongyu was so nervous that her hands shook slightly. She clenched them into fists and grunted when the ball of light approached the border between black and white. The star shook violently—there was no room to consider if she was giving birth, picking her nose, or whatever.
The ball of light was flung out of the star and landed in the river of life and death. Vitality blossomed.
A baby’s cries rang through the world; it was like the world had been reborn. Silver Moon abruptly transitioned from winter to spring. All life sprang awake with the baby’s peals and countless plants began to grow.
Snow and ice melted, spring was here.
A naked baby sat in the river, eventually deciding to swim through it. Its eyes were particularly bright and its cries sonorous.
“Wah wah wah...”
An incredibly nervous Lin Hongyu could barely catch her breath. She didn’t know what to do with the baby.
“Meow...” The quiet Number Two suddenly spoke up. “A true connate dao constitution... he’s very bold!”
The baby in the river began to grow, drinking from the river when it was thirsty and snoring over the waters when it was sleepy.
A flash of light suddenly lit up the premises. Yuan Shuo hadn’t said a word this entire time, but suddenly held a camera and snapped a photo...
The group started in unison. A calm expression remained on Yuan Shuo’s face. Everyone looked at each other.
Zhang An summoned his book of dao the next instant and pointed it at the river. Taking pictures with a camera was too unsophisticated. It was better to have the book of dao stamp its pages with these images!
How interesting! Li Hao was a baby! What in tarnation was all this?
Celestial Pole started picking his nose and quietly began recording everything. The rest of the group exchanged further glances before Lin Hongyu snorted with mirth and started recording as well.
Hong Yitang was not one to fall behind; he also pulled out his equipment.
Gan Wuliang was the only one who looked around in all directions and didn’t dare make a move.
I’m afraid of dying!
He swallowed hard.
These people are nuts! This isn’t someone we should piss off! If he suddenly wakes up in the next second and becomes an exalted emperor... and learns about everything we’ve done... Aren’t they afraid of a swift death?
After some general amusement, the baby quickly began to grow.
“Um... how do we determine what age he is?” Lin Hongyu suddenly asked.
He’s so small and I’ve never been a mother before. How do I know when he’s one year old? This kid’s not a regular child, alright?
“Look at his foundation bone!” Celestial Pole quickly responded with the relevant knowledge. “He’s growing so fast! What is this... he’s almost one... No, he
is
one!”
Lin Hongyu quickly threw a book into the river—it contained the characters of dao.
The child had already swam to the river of immaterial dao. When the book landed on his body, his eyes darted around with understanding.
“The Five Styles correspond to the five auras,” he articulated clearly in breathy, baby tones. “The five elements correspond to the five daos...”
An aura appeared over his body!
The pace at which Li Hao comprehended the aura was unbelievable. It took only a split second before five major auras hovered over his head. They didn’t take the form of the five animals. Instead, they outright transformed into the power of the five elements, combining with the five auras and spontaneously transforming into a personal domain!
Yuan Shuo’s mouth dropped open. He wanted to say something, but couldn’t find anything to say.
The fuck??
What the hell was this?!
Was Li Hao cultivating with the strength of a half step emperor, or was he really starting from zero? If it was the latter... then the young man was terrifying!
It took only the blink of an eye for the tiny baby to grow a little more. There were just the five auras on him, no other strength. They formed a domain that resembled a budding world and became part of it.
“Quick, feed him the other cultivation methods...” Celestial Pole reminded everyone.
Lin Hongyu could determine Li Hao’s age by now as well. She watched the baby swiftly grow up, shocked by the incredible pace. She tossed in the method of opening acupoints without further word.
The results made the group stare, dumbfounded.
Acupoints suddenly lit up over little Li Hao. Thirty-six of them appeared in the blink of an eye, which turned into seventy-two in another blink!
They were all tongue-tied!
Was Li Hao cultivating with the strength of a half step emperor, or was this reborn child really that much of a genius?
He spontaneously broke through to Slayer of Tens, taking another heartbeat to make it to Sunderer of Hundreds. It wasn’t long after that that he became a Dominator of Thousands...
A dao meridian abruptly opened—Mountain and Sea!
Strength of the immaterial dao materialized with the opening of this dao meridian. It transformed into an aura, bringing another dao meridian up from the river of immaterial dao and becoming part of Li Hao.
Everyone jerked with astonishment when they saw the sight. Was he combining the corporeal and immaterial so quickly? That was... so fast!
“How do we awaken his memories? He’s almost six...” Hong Yitang suddenly said.
Lin Hongyu didn’t know either. She quickly told the child everything that Li Hao had said to her. However, the toddler was wholly unresponsive and ignored her.
She was out of ideas once she ran through everything she knew. Li Hao would lose all of his memories before six years old if this continued.
Yuan Shuo suddenly laughed and jumped into the river amid the crowd’s astonished eyes. Gan Wuliang jerked with alarm. Nothing untoward would happen from this, would it?
Yuan Shuo grabbed the naked child and smacked his bottom. “Don’t you dare do that again!” he bellowed angrily.
“Wahhh!!” The child Li Hao burst out crying. “I won’t do it again... Stop spanking me... Little Hao knows what I did wrong... I won’t do it again...”
Yuan Shuo nodded with satisfaction and retreated from the river. Everyone was staring at him, open-mouthed.
“Kids won’t amount to anything if you don’t hit them,” he said calmly to the group. “We’ve all been spanked or given a thrashing in our lives. This one was simple. He’ll awaken to the truth with a few spankings!
Was that so?
Lin Hongyu nodded to herself.
I got it! So he needs to be spanked!
The Li Hao in the river continued to grow swiftly. There was more light and spirit in his eyes compared to before. Everyone understood that he’d recovered his childhood memories. It was just... this was a very strange method to awaken someone.
Li Hao’s strength grew rapidly. As more cultivation methods were tossed into the river, he set foot into Sun and Moon in the span of a breath. As the group goggled at him, he opened more dao meridians.
He was ten now; it was time for the second awakening. Lin Hongyu jumped into the river and grabbed the naked child, firmly spanking his butt!
“Why are you hitting me, evil woman?!” yelled the child. “I’m going to tell my dad...”
“......” Lin Hongyu blinked. This... wasn’t the right response, was it? This wasn’t a sign of awakening memories!
Yuan Shuo sighed. Had none of these people ever raised a child before? Why were they such idiots?
I may not have children, but I have indeed raised them in this life!