Chapter 429

As the decree spread to the nineteen provinces, Li Hao also returned to Tianmen Pass in Liangzhou.

The familiar city walls, the familiar banners—at this time, the news had not yet arrived, and the soldiers stationed here were still unaware.

Li Hao did not alert anyone and quietly returned to the small fenced-in courtyard.

The young girl practicing swordplay in the courtyard sensed the youth's aura, was startled from her cultivation, and looked up toward Li Hao, her face full of surprise:

"Young Master, you are back."

Beside her, the Sword Demon Jiang Lichen looked toward Li Hao, his eyes suddenly narrowing.

In just a short time, he felt that Li Hao's aura seemed to have become much more restrained, like a vast, unmeasurable starry sky, standing quietly, yet every movement seemed to contain the power to move stars.

Li Hao glanced at Ren Qianqian; the girl was fifteen, one year younger than him, but at this moment, she had actually already stepped into the Heavenly Human Realm.

"Did you teach her this?"

Li Hao looked at Jiang Lichen.

Jiang Lichen curled his lip: "I can't teach the Heart of a Heavenly Human; she realized it herself. It's mostly because she's been with a monster like you for too long and gained insights from you."

Hearing this, Ren Qianqian's cheeks flushed slightly; originally, she had followed Li Hao because she wanted to surpass her father and become a Heavenly Human Grandmaster, but the goal of her life had been achieved in just two years.

Now, her natural talent and strength could already be ranked in the top five of the Qiankun List.

And this was only because she had kept a low profile and only cultivated without competing with others.

Li Hao nodded and smiled at Ren Qianqian: "Now that you are by my side, your wish has been fulfilled; do you still want to continue following me? You are still young, and you can take advantage of your prime years to travel and see the world."

Ren Qianqian shook her head hurriedly and said: "No, I want to continue cultivating; I want to accompany Young Master to see the scenery at the top of the mountain."

Li Hao was helpless and said: "But I don't want to climb the mountain; the scenery at the top of the mountain is only of one kind, but the scenery at the foot of the mountain is diverse and colorful."

Ren Qianqian was stunned and immediately said: "Then I will stay at the foot of the mountain with Young Master and watch the curling smoke of the human world."

"You are quite good at rhyming," Li Hao smiled.

Ren Qianqian's cheeks flushed.

Li Hao did not try to persuade her further, but his spiritual sense swept out, yet he did not see the figure of Old Man Feng; he then let his intent cover the entire city, but he did not perceive him either, and he couldn't help but be stunned, immediately asking:

"Where is Old Man Feng?"

By now, Ren Qianqian already knew the name and identity of Feng Feng Bo Ping; seeing Li Hao ask, she hurriedly said:

"Not long after you left, Senior Feng suddenly regained his sanity as if he were a different person, and told us that he was leaving, asking me to tell you after you returned that he would be waiting for Young Master in the Land of All Sages."

"Hmm?"

Li Hao was stunned and somewhat bewildered; this was a bit too sudden.

But soon, he thought of the events within the Mo River.

Old Man Feng went to the Land of All Sages? "That old friend of yours is most likely the incarnation of a Sage, letting the incarnation reincarnate to cultivate."

Jiang Lichen said to Li Hao: "Although such things are rare, they are not few in number. Among those peerless prodigies of our Da Yu Dynasty over thousands of years, there have been such existences, only they cultivated in a low-profile manner and disappeared abruptly after a period of rising, just like appearing out of thin air and then rapidly falling."

Li Hao was slightly silent; the existence of the Sage Realm, mastering various abilities, is already beyond what mortals can imagine.

However, although the world is vast, there is ultimately still a chance to meet again.

It is just that there is one less old friend in this human world.

Li Hao's gaze swept toward the courtyard and asked: "What about those two?"

He was referring to Ying Xiaoxiao and the old man at the tea stall.

"I heard they went to collect killing resentment."

Jiang Lichen asked: "Is there war outside again?"

Li Hao nodded: "The Imperial Palace was nearly destroyed."

The request for help from the Imperial City was not sent to Tianmen Pass; the place was attacked by demons at high speed, and the soldiers far away at the border were unaware.

Although the transmission of intelligence in Da Yu is considered fast, it cannot withstand the vastness of the territory.

Hearing Li Hao's words, Ren Qianqian beside him was shocked; that was the Imperial Palace, the supreme place in her heart, and it was nearly destroyed.

Compared to her, Jiang Lichen only raised his eyebrows slightly and said: "Since you were able to return, the trouble there should have been resolved, right?"

"Hmm."

Li Hao said: "But it seems many members of the Imperial Clan were killed; don't you intend to go and see?"

Jiang Lichen's eyes flickered, and he said indifferently: "Since I have no children to worry about, nor a lover or wife, there is nothing for me to see."

Li Hao could see that he had a story in his heart, but he did not ask further; some accumulated things cannot be resolved in a few words.

As Li Hao settled down in the small courtyard and the decree spread to all provinces, while the outside world was engaged in heated discussion, Li Hao took Ren Qianqian to fish in a demon lake hundreds of miles outside the pass.

What Li Hao regretted was that perhaps because he had killed too cleanly here earlier and the deterrent power was too strong, he sat fishing by the demon lake for a day, and apart from eating four or five oranges, he had no harvest at all that day.

It seems the demons were all scared away... Li Hao thought to himself, and that is what led to his empty-handedness.

He did not use his spiritual sense to probe deep into the bottom of the lake; as a fisherman's pride, what matters is using fishing skills and judgment of the water area. If he used his spiritual sense, it would be no different from casting a net directly, and there would be no sense of achievement.

Near dusk, Li Hao returned carrying a demon he had killed in the wilderness.

"Tonight we eat roast demon pig."

Li Hao returned to the small fenced-in courtyard.

"Young Master, did you catch this while fishing?" "Hmm."

"But this seems to be a demon from the mountains."

"It is amphibious."

"Oh..."

After a simple meal, Li Hao replenished his 180 chess pieces.

When night fell, he came to the mountaintop where he often sat with Old Man Feng, carrying a small pot of wine alone, drinking while watching the cold moonlight.

When the wine in the pot was finished, Li Hao opened his palm, and the Mo River gold paper appeared, recording his several Mo River merits.

Li Hao's intent sank into the gold paper, and he soon entered the Merit Treasury.

Many merit treasures were displayed inside, floating like golden spheres, which could be exchanged for with merit.

Li Hao looked at the Power of Reversing Fate; this item was extremely useful, equivalent to a second life, but he was now facing existences of the Hearing Dao Realm, and it could deceive the secrets of heaven, so it was of little significance to him.

Li Hao flipped through it and saw that besides divine power, Earthly Veins could also be exchanged for in the Extreme Realm.

It is just that Earthly Veins require 30,000 merit, and divine power is 10,000.

And there are no Earthly Dharma Forms, and the other Extreme Realms that follow also do not have them.

The things that can be exchanged for are quite limited; for others, they might all be treasures that make one's blood boil, but for Li Hao, he can only pick and choose.

Hearing Dao Fruit can help in Hearing the Dao, but it is only a probability, not a certainty of success.

Li Hao intended to exchange for one, but he did not intend to use it for Hearing the Dao cultivation, but rather for Hearing the Dao cooking.

Now his physical Dao is at the 8th stage, and he wants to add points again, but he was prompted that he needs to enter the Dao.

It seems that the bottleneck of the cooking Dao rising to the 8th stage also requires a Dao heart to continue climbing; using this Hearing Dao Fruit for cooking will make entering the Dao relatively much easier.

And the prerequisite is that he must first raise the cooking Dao to the 8th stage, otherwise the probability of Hearing the Dao will decrease.

Besides this, Li Hao actually saw the exchange of states of mind like Poetry Heart and Sculpture Heart inside.

Like Sword Heart, it only requires 100 merit points.

Li Hao exchanged for them directly without a second word.

It is just that, besides entering the heart, there is no exchange for entering the spirit, which made Li Hao quite regretful.

Otherwise, his current chess Dao, fishing, and various other arts could all enter the spirit; by borrowing the entering-the-spirit state of mind, he could raise his sword Dao, movement techniques, and everything else to break through above the 7th stage.

The attributes Li Hao currently masters: Physical Dao 8th stage, Imperial Dao 7th stage, Movement Dao 6th stage, Sword Dao 6th stage, Fist Dao 6th stage.

And in terms of arts: Chess Dao 6th stage, Music 4th stage, Poetry and Calligraphy 3rd stage, Sculpture 3rd stage, Cooking 7th stage, Painting Dao 7th stage, Fishing 5th stage.

Remaining Art points: 1 point.

With the exchange of the two states of mind for Poetry and Calligraphy and Sculpture, Li Hao's Poetry and Calligraphy and Sculpture immediately rose to the 4th stage, breaking the bottleneck.

He can accumulate experience again until the 6th stage bottleneck.

Art points also increased to 3 points.

The successive battles had left Li Hao without a good chance to settle down and cultivate for a long time.

He was not in a hurry to exchange for the Hearing Dao Fruit, but first raised his cooking Dao experience.

In the days that followed, everyone saw Li Hao bringing back a demon from outside the pass every day to feast the whole city.

The delicacies cooked from many demons were served on the dining tables of the soldiers in the city, allowing everyone in the city to have their fill.

Li Hao turned into a cook, cultivating with all his might.

A few months later.

With the repeated cooking of demon kings, Tianmen Pass had become a capital of gourmet food, attracting many people from all over to compete to come here.

Now that the war had passed, the top demon forces outside Da Yu had basically been swept away, and the demon forces of the Star Moon Academy, secretly controlled by Hearing Hearing Yu Huang, gathered demons from all sides, forming the largest demon force today.

The dynasty is managed by Hearing Hearing Yu Huang, and the demons outside the pass are also managed by him.

The provinces that had frequent wars in recent years finally had a chance to recuperate and quiet down.

Such stability led to frequent commercial trade circulation in all provinces, and more and more people traveled everywhere; in Tianmen Pass, there were also many of Li Hao's old friends, as well as disciples of the Tan Palace Academy, etc., coming here to travel and visit.

In the small fenced-in courtyard, Xiyan turned into the appearance of a girl in a red dress, following by Li Hao's side.

Song Qiumo also arrived; Li Hao had mentioned her to Hearing Hearing Yu Huang, and she now enjoys the honor of being a Da Yu Guardian Beast of the Province, for whom a temple was built, and she obtained the marks of the formations of all provinces in her waist token, allowing her to move freely throughout Da Yu.

And in Li Hao's Heaven and Earth space, the Candle Zhu Huoshen and his wife absorbed the relic of the Buddha Lord; this relic retained the power of the fusion of Buddha and Demon, and it just so happened that the Candle Zhu Huoshen and Lady Yin were originally one body and two lives; after absorbing this object, their bodies also began to fuse, forming a large sphere, and it is unknown when they will awaken.

As for Li Qianfeng, who had been thrown into the Heaven and Earth space with his cultivation crippled, Li Hao had people send him back to the Li Clan, and this old grudge was thus ended.

As the number of times he cooked increased, and they were all demon king-level ingredients, the demon kings outside Liangzhou had all been killed by Li Hao, so he went to the Great Desolate Heaven to catch some.

In less than half a year, his cooking Dao finally accumulated to the 8th stage of experience perfection.

Li Hao did not hesitate; after his experience reached the bottleneck, he found an isolated peak and then exchanged for the Hearing Dao Fruit in the Merit Treasury.

This Hearing Dao Fruit was like green glazed glass, with spots on the fruit, containing brilliant radiance within, emitting bursts of strange fragrance.

Li Hao looked at it for two moments and then directly gnawed and swallowed it.

(End of this chapter)