Chapter 2076: The Skies Change (I)

Disorder had fled and given up a ninth rank dao spirit. He’d voluntarily forsaken his cultivation level—there was nothing Skyward could say about that. What else could one say to a ninth rank who gave up his dao?

All Skyward was considering now was what to do next. This had been loss after loss!

The path to their return was growing ever more fraught with difficulty.

“Li Hao seems to have reaped a lot in the west...” he murmured. “If he wants to take another step forward in his cultivation at this stage... he might have to establish his own chaos.”

The western region appeared in Skyward’s eyes as he smiled. It didn’t appear that real, but...

He could predict what was going to happen next.

Everyone else was quiet. This was what they hadn’t wanted to see happen. But if that created conflict between Li Hao and Chaos Sky as a result, then that might be a good thing in the end.

It would come down to how Li Hao chose!

......

Restless energy furiously spread through the void. Li Hao raised a brow when he sensed some of it as well. He was surprised that... Disorder was still alive.

Weird.

In his opinion, Chaos Sky would be domineering once he lost the facade of order. Disorder was not in peak condition, so this clash would nearly guarantee his death.

But he’s still alive? That’s surprising.

Spring Autumn also looked over with surprise after eradicating an eighth rank major world. “That is... quite something... Disorder’s gone on the run...”

She started laughing. Chaos Sky hadn’t been able to kill Disorder! That was a grave blow to the man who’d shown his true face to the rest of the chaos. Killing a ninth rank would have established his authority throughout the chaos and probably induced countless worlds to surrender at the sound of his name.

It would’ve cemented a wondrous foundation for his dynasty, but he’d failed!

Spring Autumn crowed with laughter. Failure was the best gain for them. What did it matter that Disorder was nothing good either?

......

Five Elements major world.

Yuan Shuo had run the gamut of apprehension to surprise, delight to confusion, and now gravity. Everything had gone awry!

It was all starting to fall apart and the powerhouses around him were losing their minds as disorder swept through the area!

And the critical point was, he could sense unbounded pressure!

Someone had locked onto him—Chaos Sky!

......

Disorder had relinquished the strength of a ninth rank, thrown the worlds into turmoil, and fled. That had been the last thing anyone expected.

Even Li Hao had firmly believed that Chaos Sky had the ability to kill Disorder. And yet, this was the interesting outcome that developed.

Skyward and his group had even predicted that Chaos Sky would surpass the current Disorder when he demonstrated his dark side. They’d also thought that Disorder might die in the battle, marking him the first ninth rank to fall.

Beyond all forecasts, Disorder had forsaken his spirit and gone on the run.

In the absence of spirit and with the chaos in such disarray, no one would be able to locate Disorder after he took shelter in the chaos. He cultivated the dao of disorder, making the universe a perfect cover.

However, the price for being the first powerhouse to shake off all fetters was enormous. He’d lost a cultivation level!

He was also the last thing on many people’s minds right now.

......

Chaos Sky’s might had locked onto Yuan Shuo. He was busy devouring the strength of Five Elements major world. Meanwhile, Chaos Sky himself had easily suppressed the confused state of the Nine Layer Guard.

When the Tome of Chaos Sky appeared, it locked onto the five elemental envoys and restored their minds to clarity. Despair dawned on their faces. Disorder had run off!

Skymetal and his brothers were dead. There were only the five of them left and four eighth ranks that’d come to support Disorder. All of them came from other worlds. Nine eighth ranks were very strong, but their opponent was someone that the Exalted Disorder Emperor had to sacrifice his spirit to escape from.

There was no place for them to go!

They’d been shuffled from the four regions to here, then saw hope with the arrival of Disorder.

And yet, that hope quickly withered away and died.

So there hadn’t been any fools from the very beginning. They were the only fools around! Everyone left was the master of a faction, only they worked for someone else and were not in control of their own life and death. Even the invincible Skyward had been rocked with repeated setbacks.

The times... really had changed!

“Are the fellow daoists willing to forsake the darkness for the light and contribute to the cause of establishing order?” Chaos Sky looked at them with a faint smile on his face. “With the unrest in the chaos...”

Despair deepened on the faces of the envoys. Contribute to the cause? Surrender? They were Skyward cultivators. If they betrayed their liege...

That was the strongest ninth rank in existence they were talking about, an unparalleled powerhouse of spatial dao!

Chaos Sky was indeed strong, but he was far comparable to the real Skyward. This was just a matter of an earlier or later death for the envoys!

They would die now if they didn’t surrender. But if they did, Chaos Sky would certainly have a way to control them. That meant once Skyward returned to the chaos, they would die all the same.

Dying here meant that they had a chance to be revived, as dim as those chances were. Who would bring them back if they died in Skyward’s hands?

“We have risen and fallen with the times for one million years,” sighed Flamefire. “We have ventured into the depths of the chaos and held fast against the instability of spirit, the arrival of a cataclysm, the destruction of our bodies, and finally reawakening after a million years. And yet, it is nothing in the end!”

It’d all amounted to nothing! Their dreams of Skyward dominating the chaos seemed to be only that—dreams. The light and dark envoys had died, the life and death envoys had fallen, the yin and yang envoys were no more...

And today, it’s our turn. We were all just pawns!

The overlords of the five elements had reigned supreme over the north for a million years, but they were just disposable pawns. To Disorder and the other ninth ranks, these overlords were just a handful of ants.

Only a few of the eighth ranks were worthy of their notice. The vast chaos seemed to be the ninth ranks’ playground, their stage. Everyone else were props and scenery to offset their lives. There were no exceptions.

This was when Flamefire’s thoughts turned to Li Hao. That trip through time had created some debts from the master of time, but all of that was for naught as well.

Everything had just been an ephemeral dream!

Flamefire laughed at himself and looked at the other four. He wouldn’t make the decision for them.

“I’m tired,” he chuckled softly. “Brothers and sisters, if you still have the heart to bet on Chaos Sky’s future, then you can surrender. As for the dao master...”

He didn’t say anything. Setting aside the fact that the dao master would not come right this very moment, would he resurrect them in the future?

There was... a very low chance of that.

When it came to resurrection, they’d already seceded from Skyward major world and entered the chaos. Their opponent was the formidable Chaos Sky. If he killed them, then the Skyward master might have to venture into the depths of chaos origin to find them. He would have to undertake the same process as Li Hao to have even a hope of bringing them back.

Would he do so?

Probably... not.

They were just a few eighth ranks.

Ninth rank was hard to reach, but eighth ranks could be nurtured a-plenty given enough investment. As opposed to reviving a bunch of old guys without much lifespan left to them... it was better to start over from scratch with newbies.

Flamefire was tired.

He’d struggled, desired and once hoped that Skyward could return to dominate the chaos once more. What a pity that... the times really had changed.

Fires ignited over him. He would burn himself and pass on through his element.

Next to him, the other elemental envoys gasped with shock. Flamefire...

Daoist Flamefire remained calm and gradually dispersed through the radiant splendor of his flames. As he drifted apart, the man looked at each of his brethren for the last time. Perhaps he was thinking of home at this moment. It wasn’t that he wanted to see anyone, but that he hoped to be able to return to his home.

He’d once tried to speak some reason to Li Hao in a fragment of the past. He’d said that borrowing strength from the past would ultimately lead to a massive price.

Flamefire was also the only one to say on multiple occasions that strength from the past was not easy to borrow. The price of a hundred, a thousand times would make the young man collapse...

Flamefire actually wanted peace.

But his strength would not permit so and his identity would not allow so.

He was of Skyward, one of the five envoys.

And so Flamefire immolated himself. He did so without sorrow or joy, tears or laughter, resentment or hate.

Who should he resent? Who should he hate?

None of it meant anything anymore!

He’d fought for Skyward his entire life and was nothing good. He’d killed many people in his time, eradicated worlds and engaged in slaughter all over...

This had been a life well worth living.

It was just... there was some regret in his final moment. I wish... I could die in Skyward major world.

Across the way.

Chaos Sky brimmed with a malevolent air, but the look in his eyes was very calm. He waved a hand, sending a ripple through the void that permitted a streak of flame and some motes of dust in it to drift toward the east.

Flamefire had set himself on fire, severed his dao origin, and immolated his body. He might be the first eighth rank in all these years to choose to end himself. Thus, Chaos Sky granted his dying wish.

It didn’t matter that there was dao strength left in the flickering flame, making it quite a loss to let it go. Chaos Sky didn’t stop it.

While he looked extremely evil at the moment, he retained his dao heart. His dao heart was still present. He was still him, Chaos Sky!

Darkness was just one of his ways to control the situation. It didn’t mean that his dao heart had been polluted. Strength was just a tool to be used.

Flamefire was dead. There were eight more eighth ranks present, but no one was of a mind to resist. Neither did they have any ability to fight back with. So what if there were eight of them?

Just Chaos Sky alone might be able to take all of them out.

They’d also been greatly injured in the earlier fight. There were still a dozen eighth rank Nine Layer Guards around them, as well as many seventh ranks. Several dozen guards had surrounded them and there was no place to run to!

Chaos Sky was the ruler of the greatest faction in the chaos, he had so many more eighth ranks under his banner than anyone knew of. There were six left behind to guard Chaos Sky major world alone.