As the imperial decree was disseminated through the Nineteen Provinces, Li Hao also returned to Heavenly Gate Pass in Liangzhou.
Familiar city walls, familiar banners, at this time the news had not yet arrived, and the soldiers stationed here were still unaware.
Li Hao didn’t alarm anyone else and quietly returned to the small courtyard with a fence.
In the courtyard, the sword-practicing girl sensed the presence of the young man. Startled from her cultivation, she looked up at Li Hao, her face beaming with surprise:
“Young Master, you’ve come back.”
Next to her, the Sword Demon Jiang Lichen looked at Li Hao, and his eyes suddenly sharpened.
In just a short period, he felt that Li Hao’s aura had become even more restrained, like the unexplorable vast starry sky, standing in silence. Yet, the movements of his hands and feet seemed to contain the power to move the stars.
Li Hao glanced at Ren Qianqian. The girl was fifteen years old, a year younger than him, but she had already stepped into the Heavenly Human Realm.
“Did you teach her this?”
Li Hao asked Jiang Lichen.
Jiang Lichen curled his lips: “I certainly can’t teach the heart of a Celestial, she realized it on her own. It’s mostly because she has been with you, this monster, for a long time, and she must have comprehended something from you.”
Ren Qianqian blushed slightly upon hearing this. Originally, she had followed Li Hao with the desire to surpass her own father and become a Celestial Master, but her goal for this life was achieved in just two short years.
Now her talent and strength were enough to be ranked among the top five on the Qiankun List.
And that was because she was low-key, focusing on cultivation without contending with others.
Li Hao nodded and smiled at Ren Qianqian, “Now that your wish has been fulfilled by staying by my side, do you still want to follow me? You are still young and could take advantage of this time to wander and see the world.”
Ren Qianqian shook her head immediately: “No, I want to continue cultivating. I want to accompany the Young Master to see the view from the mountaintop.”
Li Hao, feeling helpless, said, “But I don’t want to climb mountains. The view from the top is only one kind, but at the mountain’s base, it’s varied and vibrant.”
Ren Qianqian was stunned, then immediately said, “Then I will accompany the Young Master at the base of the mountain, watching human life’s smoke curling up from kitchen chimneys.”
“You are quite poetic,” Li Hao laughed.
Ren Qianqian’s cheeks turned a deeper red.
Without further persuasion, Li Hao cast out his Divine Thought but did not see Senior Feng’s figure. He then expanded his consciousness to cover the entire city but still could not sense him, prompting a moment of surprise as he immediately asked:
“Where is Senior Feng?”
By now, Ren Qianqian was well aware of Feng Boping’s true name and identity. Seeing Li Hao inquire, she hurriedly said:
“Senior Feng, just after you left, suddenly regained his senses as if he became someone else. He told us that he was leaving and asked me to tell you upon your return that he would wait for you in the Land of All Saints.”
“Hmm?”
Li Hao was stunned, somewhat astonished as it was quite sudden.
But soon, he remembered the events within the Mo River.
Senior Feng had gone to the Land of All Saints?
“Your old friend is probably a reincarnated Saint, allowing his incarnation to practice cultivation anew.”
Jiang Lichen said to Li Hao: “Although this kind of occurrence is rare, it’s not uncommon. In the course of thousands of years of the Great Yu Dynasty, there have been such beings among those peerless talents who, after a meteoric rise, vanished just as abruptly—as if they emerged from nowhere and then plummeted just as fast.” Enjoy more content from My Virtual Library Empire
Li Hao fell momentarily silent. Beings at the level of the Saint Realm possessed a variety of abilities that were beyond the imagination of ordinary people.
Nevertheless, although the world was vast, there was still a chance for a reunion.
It’s just that in the mortal world, an old acquaintance was now one fewer.
Li Hao’s gaze swept across the courtyard and asked, “What about those two?”
He was referring to Ying Xiaoxiao and the old tea stall man.
“I heard they went to collect the resentment from slaughter.”
Jiang Lichen asked, “Is there turmoil outside again?”
Li Hao nodded, “The Imperial Palace was nearly destroyed.”
The call for help from the Imperial City had not reached Heavenly Gate Pass where the demonic forces swiftly attacked. The soldiers stationed at the distant border remained uninformed.
Although the Great Yu Dynasty was efficient in transmitting intelligence, the vastness of the territory made it challenging.
Hearing Li Hao’s words, Ren Qianqian beside him was shocked. The Imperial Palace was the most sacred place in her heart, and it had nearly been destroyed.
Compared to her reaction, Jiang Lichen simply raised his eyebrows slightly and said: “Since you have returned, I presume that the trouble there is resolved, right?”
“Yes.”
Li Hao continued, “But it seems that many from the Imperial Family were killed. Don’t you want to take a look?”
Jiang Lichen’s eyes flickered briefly before he said indifferently, “I have neither children to worry about nor a spouse. There’s nothing for me to see.”
Li Hao noticed that there was a story in his heart, but didn’t ask further. Some sedimented matters couldn’t be resolved with just a few words.
As Li Hao settled into the small courtyard, the imperial decree also spread across the provinces. While there was intense discussion in the outside world, Li Hao took Ren Qianqian to fish in Demon Lake, a few hundred miles outside the pass.
To Li Hao’s regret, it seemed that his previous actions had cleansed the area too thoroughly and his deterrent was too strong. As a result, after a day of fishing in the Demon Lake, aside from eating four or five tangerines, he had no catch for the day.
It seems that the demons were all scared away… Li Hao thought to himself, leading to an empty harvest.
He didn’t use Divine Thought to probe deep into the lake. As a proud angler, the essence was in using fishing skills and understanding the body of water. Using Divine Thought would be no different from casting a net, and that would take away the sense of achievement.
As dusk neared, Li Hao returned, carrying a demon beast he had killed in the mountains.
“Tonight we’ll have roast demon pig.”
“`
Li Hao returned to his small fenced courtyard.
“Young Master, is this what you caught while fishing?”
“Mhm.”
“But this seems to be a demon from the mountains.”
“It’s amphibious.”
“Oh…”
After a simple meal and drink, Li Hao refilled his Chess Tao with 180 chess pieces.
When night fell, he went to the mountaintop where he often sat with Feng and drank alone from a small jug of wine, enjoying the cold moonlight.
After he finished the wine in the jug, Li Hao opened his palm and the Mo River Gold Paper appeared, recording several of his Mo River merits.
Li Hao’s thoughts delved into the gold paper and he soon entered the Merit Treasure Vault.
Various Merit Treasures were displayed inside, floating like golden orbs, exchangeable with merit points.
Li Hao looked at the Life-Defying Power, which was extremely useful and akin to having a second life, but the entities he faced now were all from the Tao Comprehension Realm, capable of concealing their fate from the heavens, making it less significant for him.
Li Hao browsed through and noticed that aside from divine power, you could also exchange for the Heaven and Earth Vein at the Extreme Realm.
However, the Heaven and Earth Vein required thirty thousand merits while divine power cost ten thousand.
There was no Heaven and Earth Law Manifestation, and the other Extreme Realms also lacked it.
The exchangeable items were quite limited; while they could be treasures to others, stirring their blood and desire, for Li Hao, the selection was pick and choose.
The Fruit of Enlightenment could assist in comprehending the Tao, but it only had a probability of success, not a certainty.
Li Hao planned to exchange for one but intended to use it not for Tao cultivation but for cooking.
Now at Stage Eight of the Physical Body Dao, he was prompted to Enter Dao for the next point increase.
Presumably, to advance cooking to Stage Eight and overcome the bottleneck, a Dao heart was needed to continue the ascent, making entering the Dao with the Fruit of Enlightenment for cooking much easier.
The prerequisite, though, was that he must first advance his Cooking Dao to Stage Eight; otherwise, the probability of enlightenment would decrease.
Apart from that, Li Hao unexpectedly also saw the exchange options for states of mind like Poetry Heart and Carving Heart.
Like Sword Heart, they only required one hundred merit points.
Li Hao didn’t hesitate to directly exchange for them.
However, besides Enter Heart, Spirit-Entering was not exchangeable, which Li Hao found quite regrettable.
Otherwise, his Chess Tao, Fishing and other Artistic Skills could all have Spirit-Entering, with which he could advance his Sword Dao, Body Path, and so on beyond the Seventh Stage.
Li Hao’s current attributes:
Physical Body Dao at Stage Eight, Control Dao at Seventh Stage, Body Path Dao at Sixth Stage, Sword Dao at Sixth Stage, and Fist Skill at Sixth.
In terms of Artistic Skill: Chess Tao at Sixth Stage, Musical Rhythm at Fourth Stage, Poetry and Books at Third Stage, Carving at Third Stage, Cooking at Seventh Stage, Artistic Path at Seventh Stage, and Fishing at Fifth Stage.
Remaining Skill Points: 1 point.
With the exchanges of the two states of mind for Poetry and Books and Carving, Li Hao’s Poetry and Books and Carving immediately increased to Fourth Stage, breaking through the bottleneck.
He could once again accumulate experience until reaching the Sixth Stage bottleneck.
His Skill Points increased to 3 points.
The continuous battles had meant it had been a long while since Li Hao had properly settled down to cultivate.
He didn’t rush to exchange for the Fruit of Enlightenment but first advanced his cooking experience.
In the following days, people saw Li Hao bring back a demon from beyond the pass every day, hosting a feast for the entire city.
The exotic flavors of the cooked demons were served to the soldiers’ tables, gratifying everyone in the city.
Li Hao became the cook, fully dedicated to his cultivation.
Months later,
With repeated cooking of Demon Kings, the Tianmenguan became renowned as a city of gourmet cuisine, attracting many people from various regions to compete for a visit.
Now that the war had ceased, the top demonic forces outside the Dayu Territory had been virtually swept clean, while the Tianren Sect’s demonic forces, secretly managed by Emperor Yu’s Star Moon Academy, gathered demons from all sides to form the largest demonic force.
The Imperial Family managed the Dynasty while Emperor Yu also managed the demons beyond the pass.
The provinces which had seen frequent strife over recent years also finally had a chance to recuperate and quieten down.
This peace led to more frequent business and trade between provinces, and more people were seen traveling, with many old friends of Li Hao and disciples from Tan Palace Academy visiting Tianmenguan.
Inside the fenced courtyard, Xiyan took on the form of a young girl in a red dress and followed by Li Hao’s side.
Song Qiumo also arrived; Li Hao had mentioned her to Emperor Yu, and now she enjoyed the honor of the Great Wilderness Heaven’s divine beast, with temples built for her. She received symbols for the Arrays of the provinces in her waist tablet, allowing her free entry throughout the Dayu Territory.
Meanwhile, in Li Hao’s Heaven and Earth Space, the Candle Flame God and his wife were absorbing the relics of a Buddha Lord, which contained the united powers of Buddha and demon; being originally twinborn, they started to merge their bodies upon absorbing the relic, forming a large sphere, with no indication of when they would awaken.
As for Li Qianfeng, who had been abandoned in the Heaven and Earth Space with his cultivation destroyed, Li Hao had him sent back to the Li Family, thus ending their grudge.
As Li Hao cooked more often, and always with Demon King-level ingredients, all the Demon Kings outside Liangzhou Territory had been wiped out by him, so he went out to the Great Wilderness Heaven to capture some more.
In less than half a year, his Cooking Dao finally accumulated enough experience for Stage Eight Perfection.
Without hesitation, once his experience reached the bottleneck, Li Hao found an isolated peak and exchanged for that Tao Comprehension Fruit from the Merit Treasure Vault.
This Fruit of Enlightenment was like a lustrous green glass sphere, with patterns on its surface and brimming with dazzling light, emanating waves of unusual fragrance.
Li Hao looked at it a couple of times, then bit and swallowed it directly.
“`