Chapter 202: Twin Li Hao, Longguan Road Cannot Be Entered

Spring rain was continuous.

The distant mountains and nearby forests outside the pass were shrouded in silver-bead-like rain.

The pattering raindrops hit the fenced courtyard and splashed into the cracks of the bluestone slabs in the courtyard, bringing up the smell of soil.

A pot of tea in the kitchen, two people sitting at the table.

One was Li Hao, and the other was also Li Hao.

That's right.

The two figures drinking tea and playing chess at the table in this courtyard were both Li Hao.

From the outside, they were identical.

It was just that the other Li Hao was slightly sluggish, and his eyes were a bit dull.

"Sure enough, the brain isn't flexible enough either."

Li Hao placed a piece and won the game again, but there was no experience increase.

Even in this form of competition, it was judged by the panel as playing against himself.

But it didn't matter if there was no experience. Li Hao had entered the heart with chess, and even without experience, he played with great relish.

The clone in front of him, who looked the same as him, was obtained from the collection of the famous painting sent by that painter.

That famous painting was: "Double-Faced Person."

In the painting was a young girl with a long skirt, staring into the distance, looking at the afterglow.

A seemingly simple painting, but it contained countless details, blending light, dark, symmetry, and other painting techniques to perfection.

Through the thickness of the lines, with just a few simple strokes, the swaying skirt was outlined. The light and dark amplitude of every fold was natural and symmetrical, which could be called terrifying.

The afterglow was light red, and the color it emitted was also like this, like a furnace of fire melting on the painting paper, really burning.

With his sixth-stage painting skills, Li Hao felt that he was far behind and could not reach this level.

He felt that to meet the requirements of the panel catalog, it might require ninth-stage skills to do so.

And such a high artistic conception, there were very few in the mortal world who could reach it. Even famous paintings or manuals passed down for thousands of years were not many.

And each one had a foundation passed down for thousands of years, which was of extraordinary significance.

After "Double-Faced Person" was collected, it disappeared from the world, which made Li Hao feel deep regret.

"Double-Faced Person" was embedded by Li Hao into the Flesh Dao, and the attributes it brought were extremely peculiar.

Double-Faced Person: With your own flesh and blood, you can construct a dark-side physical body, which has 30% of the main body's ability.

If the dark-side physical body is destroyed, the main body will not be harmed.

The main body and the dark side have no connection with each other, and memory sharing and vision sharing are impossible.

When the dark-side physical body is destroyed, the main attribute will restart—(only one dark-side physical body can be constructed) the main body can give instructions to the dark-side physical body, and the dark-side physical body will have the simple thinking of the main body.

When Li Hao collected other chess manuals, famous paintings, and music scores earlier, the attributes he obtained were all to increase a certain attribute, but this "Double-Faced Person" could directly provide him with an ability.

Or rather, the previous attributes were also some kind of ability.

For example, the lethal attribute was an extremely strange ability that could be lethal with a 1% probability.

It was just that the ability of the Double-Faced Person was materialized.

This special attribute, when used in battle, did not bring much increase. It was equivalent to adding another helper for Li Hao, but each ability was only one-third of his main body.

After testing, Li Hao found that although it was said to be one-third, the actual combat power was far behind.

Because of the reduction in ability, this dark-side clone could not display the special state of the Martial Dao Extreme Realm, such as Heaven and Earth Dharma Image, Divine Power, and Immortal Transformation, all of which were disabled.

The physical strength was only 300,000 jin.

The energy in the body was not Immortal Qi either. The full explosion of the whole body's energy was less than 4 million jin.

One must know that the Imperial Clan could reach 2 million jin of energy.

The soldiers of the Yuan Camp were 500,000 jin.

It was only equivalent to twice that of the Imperial Clan.

Fortunately, the Yin-Yang Dual Veins were not sealed. Activating the power of the dual veins gave 8 million jin.

It was equivalent to 4 times the explosive power of the Imperial Clan.

Shenyou, Object Control, etc., were also reduced, only equivalent to about twice that of the Imperial Clan.

Just based on the combat power of this dark-side clone, Li Hao estimated that it was fine to suppress some powerful demons of the Non-Decay Realm, but if it encountered a Demon King, it would probably be slapped to death in the blink of an eye.

But fortunately, Li Hao didn't intend to use this clone to fight. It was just convenient to accompany himself to play chess in his spare time or help him run errands.

Moreover, the construction of this dark-side clone was effortless; it was condensed from one of his fingers.

The regeneration of his main body's severed finger only took a few minutes to grow back.

As for this dark-side clone, the healing speed of injuries was also greatly reduced. Li Hao asked Li Hongzhuang to test it, and it was only about twice as high as hers.

These were secondary. What made Li Hao most helpless was that the chess skills of this dark-side clone were too bad. The ability in this aspect was only equivalent to about one-third of his own.

But chess skills were different from Martial Dao. Competing with someone whose technique was one-third of his own was simply a level of seeing through at a glance. It was too clumsy, and there was no pleasure in winning.

The only thing worth being gratified about was that this dark-side clone could help him run errands when he was free, and go outside the pass to clear out those demons from time to time.

It was a pity that the dark-side clone could not earn panel experience for doing things; otherwise, if the experience was doubled, it would be truly happy.

In addition to the attributes brought by this famous painting, the chess manual given by that Little Chess Saint also brought a special attribute.

The chess manual was named: Qiankun Atlas.

Qiankun is heaven and earth. The chess manual is vertical and horizontal, with 19 horizontal lines and 19 vertical lines, requiring 361 pieces to fill! Li Hao embedded this chess manual into the Imperial Dao and also obtained a peculiar attribute.

Qiankun Atlas:

You can choose any object as a mark and pour 50% of your power into it.

Once the mark is destroyed, the power will be vented and exploded.

Total number of marks: 180.

This 180 was the number of black or white pieces placed, and it was also the total number of marks Li Hao could make at the same time.

After Li Hao's test, he poured power into a military flag. During the pouring process, he could also add his own sword techniques into it.

He injected a sword technique and 50% of his power, and this military flag became one of the marks.

When the military flag was destroyed, the sword energy and power sealed inside would explode, covering the surroundings indiscriminately.

This was a bit like the array constructed by the old Star Official.

But Li Hao's was more concise and belonged to a single type, only suitable for himself.

Under the attribute of hiding one's light, the 50% power Li Hao consumed required half a day to recover.

In other words, he could only make two military flags filled with power a day.

Li Hao was not in a hurry. Anyway, he was free. Every day when his energy recovered a little, he would make one.

Now he had accumulated 16 marked military flags in his small courtyard.

When the rain stopped, Li Hao let the dark-side clone take the marked military flags and go outside the pass, planting one on every mountain peak that originally had the aura of the Three Imperishables demons.

Occupying the mountain as king.

He wanted to make the places where his military flags stood forbidden for demons!

In the courtyard, Ren Qianqian was initially surprised to see the dark-side clone, but later learned it was Li Hao's cultivation technique and returned to calm.

The strange situation of the dark-side clone was not an exception.

Li Hao had read many ancient books in the Listening Rain Building and knew that some cultivation techniques practiced by the Three Imperishables Realm could condense clones, but the quality of the clones varied.

Moreover, some Four Standing Realm powerhouses were said to specifically forge a mortal body, send the original mortal heart into the mortal body, while the main body condensed the Dao heart and stepped into the Four Standing Realm.

This was also a technique to break through to the Dao Heart Realm.

It was just that this technique was not advocated and was not perfect enough.

Once the mortal heart was broken, the Dao heart would also be affected, just like an upside-down bowl with a gap.

Like the Li family, or the Four Standing Realm powerhouses Li Hao knew, they were basically transforming the mortal into the Dao, with only one true body, and no condensed mortal body.

Among the demons, however, the cultivation of "dividing the heart and merging with the Dao" was advocated.

Like the Three-Phase Head Snake Demon Li Hao encountered earlier, if it could melt all three heads into one, it could transform into the Dao Heart Realm.

The Ten Thousand Caves Wanku Wanku Gui Niang was even more exaggerated, gathering thousands of ghosts, tearing the mortal heart to pieces, and blending the hearts of thousands of ghosts, finally becoming a Dao Heart Demon Seed.

This process was extremely easy to get lost in, turning into a lonely ghost, mountain spirit, or ghost monster. Being able to cultivate it was also related to luck, strategy, and layout.

Every Demon King who cultivated to the Four Standing Realm had an extremely turbulent and tortuous experience.

And once they stepped into the Four Standing Realm and became kings, unless they were seeking their own death, there would rarely be any worry about their lives.

If they reached the Fate-Reversing Realm, it would be even harder to die.

Li Hao had the power to kill several Demon Kings earlier, but in the end, he only left behind this Ten Thousand Caves Wanku Wanku Gui Niang of the Dao Heart Realm, and the rest of the Demon Kings all escaped.

Time flew by.

The spring rain became more continuous, and occasional sunny days were fleeting.

More and more military flags were planted outside the pass, and each military flag seemed to be a slap in the face of the demons outside the pass.

As more and more were planted, finally, some demons could not endure the humiliation.

In the pouring rain, a demon of the Non-Bad Realm roared and rushed toward the mountain peak where the flag had been planted a few days ago. That was its new home that had just been half-built, but now it had been leveled, leaving only a bare mountain peak and that battle flag bathed in the heavy rain.

Seeing the two characters "Hao Tian" on the flag, the demon's eyes were bloodthirsty, and it roared in anger.

"Lord Longze, don't!"

Some birds from the Heavenly Mystery Hall rushed over and hurriedly called out. But this demon no longer cared. Rather than living a heart-pounding life outside this pass, having to hide and flee every once in a while, it might as well change to another place to settle down.

It had already planned to tear all the broken flags of that damn human brat to pieces and then leave.

Anyway, the world is big, where is not home?

Bang! As its sharp claws slapped down, the battle flag was immediately submerged, the flagpole shattered, and the flag torn.

Before the demon could sneer, suddenly, a sword energy soaring to the sky erupted from the battle flag, as if a sword had opened up heaven and earth! It swept away and cut off the pouring rain in the sky!

Subsequently, the sword energy broke through the clouds, tore the dark clouds in the sky, and stopped this spring rain.

And then it slashed down fiercely!

Like a sword energy casually swung by an immortal in the ethereal heaven and earth! The demon's pupils contracted, revealing horrified shock, unable to believe where this attack came from! It roared in anger, displaying monstrous demonic energy, its scales and armor surging, wanting to block the sword energy.

But the next moment, the sword energy slashed down directly. With a bang, it split its body from the head, splitting it into two halves! Subsequently, the sword energy melted, shattering into countless tiny sword energies, washing over it like raindrops.

If it were just the body being split, the demon could still escape with its life. After all, a "mere fatal wound" was not enough to kill a demon of the Three Imperishables Realm.

Even if the heart was shattered, as long as it left the battlefield in time, took medicine in time, or protected its lifeblood, it could still survive.

Relying on the speed of physical regeneration to heal the shattered heart was not too difficult.

But at this moment, under the washing of millions of sword energies, a sword energy instantly entered its body. Before the demon could struggle, its soul was destroyed! Its huge body fell straight onto the hillside, in front of the broken military flag.

When the sword energy soared to the sky, the bird that rushed over stopped, hurriedly retreated and shrank, its speed fast, hiding out of the coverage range of the sword energy.

After seeing the thousands of sword energies constantly baptizing the demon's corpse until it disappeared, the bird came back to its senses, shocked and speechless.

"This, is there a sword array on this military flag?!"

"How is that possible!"

"When did the Astronomical Observatory of the Emperor Da Yu Divine Dynasty become able to set up such a terrifying and precise array!!"

The bird's feathers were trembling and shivering, shocked to the point that its blood seemed to have frozen. Although spring had arrived, it felt colder than in the middle of winter.

This spring might be the spring for some people.

But it was the winter for their demons! The bird's body went limp, and it blew the mysterious sound whistle. Not long after, a large number of Heavenly Mystery Hall birds gathered.

After seeing the circle of clear sky above the mountain peak, they were all surprised, stepping forward to chirp and ask about the situation.

After understanding the reason, all the birds were stunned, looking dumbfoundedly at the quiet mountain peak.

The corpse of the Three Imperishables demon was still lying there.

One military flag, suppressing and killing a Three Imperishables powerful demon!

And such military flags... if they remembered correctly, there were already more than thirty planted! And every once in a while, a few more would be planted, covering all the mountain peaks with dense heaven and earth energy in the east and west areas of the five thousand li outside the pass! "This, these are all that youth's battle flags!"

"He, is he going to turn this five-thousand-li area into his own territory?!"

The numerous birds of the Heavenly Mystery Hall were trembling, feeling fear and heart palpitations.

They could no longer understand the youth's strength and ability.

The red bird changed into the appearance of a red-dressed girl. Her pretty, watery little face was full of horror.

She worked in intelligence and could be said to be well-informed, having seen many geniuses and evildoers of the Emperor Da Yu Divine Dynasty over the past hundred years.

But, the brilliant past hundred years were not as good as what she had seen in this short year! The terror of that shocking youth, even separated by thousands of li, seemed to still release monstrous majesty, suppressing the present world! "I suddenly understand why that youth dared to sit alone in the border pass."

"That is not the gospel of our demons, it is the gospel of that youth."

He was far more cruel and terrifying than the rumors in Qingzhou, like a fierce god out of a cage, truly releasing his sharp edge and claws! "Quick, notify everyone, never approach this military flag. Later, we will find someone to move one back to see what kind of sword array is on this military flag."

The red-dressed girl said hurriedly.

The numerous birds were awe-struck and dispersed quickly.

In the fenced courtyard.

A panel prompt appeared before Li Hao's eyes, and he saw the number of marks jump from 35/180 to 34/180.

He immediately knew that one of the marks had been destroyed.

Li Hao raised his eyebrows slightly and immediately let the dark-side clone go to investigate, and by the way, let the Heavenly Mystery Hall give an explanation.

Not long after, the dark-side clone returned, bringing back the corpse of a Three Imperishables demon.

At the same time, birds from the Heavenly Mystery Hall were waiting along the way, treating the dark-side clone as Li Hao, apologizing to him and explaining the origin.

The dark-side clone didn't speak, just casually pinched the bird to death.

The Heavenly Mystery Hall was furious when they learned of this, but they didn't dare to retaliate. The next day, they sent birds to ask for the reason. Li Hao indicated that this was just the first lesson.

Actions are often more deterrent than words.

The bird that passed the message returned tremblingly, bringing Li Hao's words back. The Heavenly Mystery Hall was shocked and angry, but helpless.

But after this incident, the Heavenly Mystery Hall promoted Li Hao's fierce name even more vigorously. Those Three Imperishables demons, although half-believing, did not dare to take risks, and finally slowly left the area outside the pass, choosing to go elsewhere to find another way out.

Although some mountain peaks, hills, and swamps outside the pass were the "ancestral lands" of many demons.

Birthplaces.

Even demons have feelings and dependence on their birthplaces.

But they knew that during the time that youth was guarding Heaven Gate Pass, this ancestral land did not belong to them.

Fortunately, their demon lifespan is long, and they have more patience than the human race. After waiting for decades or a hundred years, that youth will probably have left long ago.

And a hundred years of time, for some powerful demons, is just a closed-door cultivation.

The area outside the pass became increasingly quiet.

Only empty scenery remained.

Thousands of li outside the pass, demons were extinct, and only occasional small demons who didn't know the situation wandered in.

Time flew by.

After the spring rain, the hot summer arrived.

Cangya City became more lively and prosperous, and the number of pedestrians coming and going increased.

In the scorching summer, on the Longguan Road leading to Cangya City, there were sparse pedestrians rushing, and a merchant caravan.

And in a dense forest dozens of li outside the Longguan Road.

A huge and bloated demon crawled from the dense forest.

Soon, it saw the wide and snow-white Longguan Road ahead, and a bloodthirsty look appeared in its eyes.

It was about to crawl forward when suddenly an old tree in the dense forest spoke: "Do not go any further."

"Hmm?"

The demon stopped, turned its head to look at the old tree demon that made the sound. If the other party hadn't spoken, it wouldn't have even noticed.

Its complexion changed slightly, and it said coldly: "Why?"

The old tree demon said hoarsely: "If you go any further, it will be the Longguan Road."

"Hmph, what road or not, what about the Longguan Road?"

The bloated demon snorted coldly.

"Once you reach the Longguan Road, you cannot go any further. That is the territory of the human race!" the old tree demon sighed.

"Human race?"

"Hasn't this road long been the territory of our demons? Does this human race still dare to come?"

"You must be from another state."

The old tree demon shook its branches slightly, as if shaking its head, and said: "The situation you mentioned has long been in the past. Now there are no demons there. There are only the corpses of our demons, a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood!"

"Hmm?"

The bloated demon frowned and looked at the Longguan Road, but only saw some delicious humans, like walking little desserts.

"Did you see that military flag?"

The old tree demon's branches swayed, pointing to the military flag piercing through a high rock beside the Longguan Road: "Seeing that military flag, you should leave quickly. The strong smell of human blood on you will bring you a fatal disaster."

"Hmph, playing the ghost, you want to scare me with a military flag?"

The bloated demon sneered: "Don't talk about military flags, I have even eaten an army. Old guy, if you weren't too woody, I would have used you as a snack!"

Saying this, it couldn't be bothered to pay attention anymore and rushed straight toward the Longguan Road.

"Grandpa, it won't listen to you."

Beside the old tree demon, a small branch swayed and said.

The old tree demon sighed and didn't speak.

And the bloated demon had already rushed to the Longguan Road, rushing rapidly toward the few figures at the end of its sight.

Its eyes were full of bloodthirsty killing intent, and the wind brought by its body blew the battle flag hanging on the high rock beside it.

But just as it was rapidly approaching, a clear breeze suddenly swept over.

In this hot summer, the clear breeze brought coolness and swept past the bloated demon.

"This..."

The bloated demon's pupils suddenly contracted, wanting to dodge, but it was too late.

Its body suddenly split, internal organs scattered all over the ground, and blood flowed.

That clear breeze seemed to come from Cangya City at the end of the Longguan Road.

It also seemed to be the sword energy casually swung by that youth a year ago, which cut down the demon of that year, hovered on this official road, and blew back to the past after a year...

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 203 =====

(End of this chapter)