Chapter Fifty-Nine: Ten Li Hao Descend

The two people and one dragon stood there, dumbfounded. One sat on the ground, face full of disbelief; another muttered “monster” under his breath; the dragon, taking on a human form, gazed blankly without moving.

After four or five breaths, Li Hao finally recovered from his breakthrough. He looked around at the chaotic scene, everything in disarray, and asked in confusion, “Sister Xueyou, how did things turn out like this?”

Lin Xueyou heard Li Hao’s question and unconsciously walked over to him, gently pinching his handsome cheek. “Are you really Brother Li Hao? Are you alright?”

Li Hao smiled back and nodded.

Overcome with excitement, Lin Xueyou nearly embraced him, arms already outstretched. Suddenly, she caught herself, inwardly scolding, “Lin Xueyou, what are you doing?” Just barely restraining her impulse, she let her hands rest on Li Hao’s shoulders instead. Standing face-to-face, Li Hao caught a faint whiff of her fragrance. As he was momentarily distracted, the incarnation of his primary desire seized the opportunity, swiftly taking control of his actions and emotions.

His expression shifted from a smile to something mischievous, his gaze sliding from Lin Xueyou’s stunning face downwards, lingering over her majestic curves and then lower. Lin Xueyou felt the heat of his gaze and her face burned with embarrassment.

She snapped at Li Hao, “You lecher!” and quickly put some distance between them. Li Hao was mortified, uncertain how nine new selves had suddenly appeared. It had taken all his strength just to absorb those nine chaotic incarnations back into himself, yet even then, a slip could let them sabotage him. He felt a near-overwhelming urge to cry.

To Lin Xueyou, it seemed like Li Hao’s own doing. Such things were hard to explain—and impossible to justify. This time, Li Hao had truly stumbled over his incarnation of desire, and could only suffer in silence.

Meanwhile, Xiao Jiu, unperturbed, having felt Li Hao’s negative emotions and observed his unusual behavior toward Lin Xueyou—along with hearing her scolding and seeing her blushing—began his messenger work. He told Li Hao, “Young master, when Sister Xueyou saw you in danger, she was heartbroken and cried for a long time. I had to comfort her for ages before she calmed down.”

Li Hao found this almost unbelievable. “We’ve only known each other a day! Could that really be true?” If Xiao Jiu had claimed Lu Xuemei or Lu Yao had cried, Li Hao would have believed it without hesitation. But Lin Xueyou was harder to accept. Still, since Xiao Jiu said so, Li Hao couldn’t pretend nothing had happened.

Lin Xueyou hurriedly protested, “Don’t listen to this troublesome dragon! How could I possibly cry for you?”

Despite her protest, Li Hao glanced at her and noticed signs she truly had cried. He earnestly said, “Sister Xueyou, I’m sorry for making you worry.”

This time, Lin Xueyou wasn’t coy but gave Li Hao a flirtatious sidelong look. “As long as you know,” she replied, her gaze evasive. Li Hao still hadn’t resolved his confusion and asked Xiao Jiu, “Why did this place end up like this?”

Xiao Jiu answered, “It happened after your transformation, young master.”

Li Hao pointed at his nose with a slender finger. “Are you saying all this chaos is because of me?”

His question wasn’t out of disbelief in Xiao Jiu, but because he found it hard to accept.

Li Hao mused aloud, “If only I could restore everything here.”

Xiao Jiu replied, “Restoring this place isn’t impossible, but it’s very difficult.”

“I’ll try,” Li Hao declared.

Li Hao merely hoped to do his best, testing whether the Primordial Chaos Yin-Yang Array could assimilate external decomposition. He wasn’t very optimistic. As soon as he finished speaking, his hands swiftly formed seals—right hand down, left hand up. Mind and motion in perfect harmony, he activated the Primordial Chaos Yin-Yang Array. With familiarity after his previous attempt, the second execution was much smoother.

Within two breaths, Li Hao brought the array to its peak. Nine incarnations appeared instantly. With a thought, he commanded them to join him in activating the array. This time, their collective intent focused entirely on repairing every ruined flower and blade of grass.

To Lin Xueyou and Xiao Jiu, seeing ten people simultaneously casting the Primordial Chaos Yin-Yang Array was a spectacular sight. The ten arrays overlapped, centered on Li Hao, and within a few breaths spread across a thousand miles. Everything within that radius, once destroyed, now fused together and was purified by the array. Not only was everything restored, but the flowers, grass, and trees flourished more than ever before.

Lin Xueyou and Xiao Jiu, who had expected only to watch Li Hao’s antics, were once again stunned.

Apart from shock, neither could find words. Li Hao, seeing everything accomplished, felt a spontaneous sense of fulfillment and satisfaction.

Yet it hadn’t been easy. Initially, he only wanted to test the array’s capabilities. To his surprise, this experiment brought him a tremendous delight. After retracting the array, he grew dizzy; the nine incarnations returned to his body without being summoned. Having expended so much power to cast the massive array, Li Hao collapsed to the ground.

He then sat quietly to recover his strength, wondering if he could use the Primordial Chaos Yin-Yang Array to restore his energy. No sooner thought than done, he sat cross-legged, focusing his mind and rapidly forming seals. Gathering energy at his dantian, as he completed the process, power from all corners of the realm surged toward him, converging in the array at his dantian and forming a vast, dense vortex of laws. The array purified the gathered strength and sent it all into Li Hao’s body.

Lin Xueyou and Xiao Jiu were again astounded by Li Hao’s monstrous speed in gathering the world’s laws. Lin Xueyou found the young man before her increasingly unfathomable. In her eyes, every action he took defied logic. His entire being was a mystery.

As the little princess of the Book Sage Palace, Lin Xueyou had read countless tales of strange people and events, but never had she encountered a prodigy like Li Hao.

At the Wandering Realm, he could produce nine incarnations, each possessing eighty percent of his own power. In ten days, he had broken through a major realm and five minor ones. He could restore the world at the Wandering Realm with the powers of the Returning Origin Realm. Everything about him was incredible—how could Lin Xueyou remain calm?

Others’ incarnations were mere illusions or avatars condensed from the laws of heaven and earth. But Li Hao’s incarnations were genuine, real bodies. While he wasn’t the only one capable of true incarnations below the Soul Refining Realm, those who could do so were extremely rare. To have incarnations with eighty percent of the original’s power was unheard of.

Legend had it that only those at the Celestial Realm could create incarnations with eighty percent of their main body’s power. Yet no records said any Celestial Realm master could simultaneously produce nine identical incarnations. Li Hao was a freak—he possessed the restorative powers of the Returning Origin Realm at the Wandering Realm, the incarnation abilities of the Celestial Realm, and even surpassed them in number. Everything about him was bizarre; Lin Xueyou couldn’t fathom it, nor could anyone else.

Of course, Li Hao only possessed the special abilities of the Returning Origin Realm and Celestial Realm; his true power was far from reaching those heights.

Now, Li Hao’s strength was completely depleted by the array. Even standing was difficult. He had no choice but to sit quietly and recover, his mind empty of other concerns.

Lu Xuemei and Lu Zhengtian, brother and sister, searched for a while, but found nothing within a hundred miles. According to their agreement, they regrouped at the mountain peak.

Soon, both returned.

“Brother, did you find anything?” Lu Xuemei was anxious. Lu Zhengtian shook his head helplessly. “No, did you find anything, Mei’er?”

Lu Xuemei shook her head. “No.”

The siblings moved on to search the next location.

Lu Yao followed the direction pointed by the leaves, forging ahead, muttering to herself, “Sister, Brother Li Hao, where are you?”

Lin Huashu walked steadily in a chosen direction.

Kuihu and his two companions searched as well, occasionally regrouping.

“Did you discover anything?”

They all shook their heads. “No.”

The three continued searching.

Many others were also seeking traces of Li Hao, though their motives were sinister—some for revenge, some for reward money, all with ulterior motives.

Beside the Void Gate in the Wanbao Palace plaza, a burly, handsome youth in white sat quietly. Young men and women who had just left the competition sometimes pointed and whispered about him. Many girls cast affectionate glances his way.

Yet the youth ignored the chaos around him. Those whose cultivation was not high could not discern his true nature and were curious about him.

The silent, burly youth was Li Hao’s battle beast, the triple-mutated qilin, Bai Shengqi. He waited there simply for Li Hao to emerge from the trials.

After about a quarter-hour of meditation, Li Hao’s power was restored to its peak. He stood, stretched lazily, feeling quite satisfied.

He quickly formed seals, summoned his nine incarnations, and instructed them, “You nine, head out in nine directions to search for Sister Xuemei, Sister Yao’er, Brother Lu Zhengtian, Brothers Lin Huashu, and Kuihu and his two companions. We’ll wait here for your news.”

With everything arranged, Li Hao walked over to Lin Xueyou. He felt he had grown taller, nearly as tall as her.

Lin Xueyou, seeing the monster before her sizing her up, snapped, “What are you staring at? Do you think there are flowers growing on my head?”

Li Hao said nothing, reaching for Lin Xueyou’s head. At first, she instinctively wanted to dodge, but ultimately didn’t. Li Hao retrieved something from her hair, smiled, and teased, “Hmm! Sister Xueyou does have flowers growing on her head.”

He really did pull a broken flower petal from her hair.

Then he said, “I’m as tall as Sister Xueyou now.”

Lin Xueyou saw the boy’s clear gaze and relaxed, though a hint of disappointment remained. She smiled softly at him.

Li Hao, witnessing this, praised her, “Sister Xueyou, your smile is truly beautiful.”

“So you mean I don’t look good when I’m not smiling?”

“No, no, please don’t misunderstand. I just mean that you look even better when you smile. You should smile more often.”

“Do you really think so, Brother Li Hao?”

Li Hao nodded. “Yes!”

Lin Xueyou looked at Li Hao, his eyes pure and innocent, and felt a tinge of worry. She said, “Brother Li Hao, let’s sit down and have a proper talk.”

Xiao Jiu, overhearing Lin Xueyou’s desire for a private conversation, found an excuse to go scout around and quickly slipped away. Li Hao and Lin Xueyou then found a grassy spot beside a small lake and sat down together.