Star Gate

Chapter 973: The Way Forward Is Beneath Your Feet (III)

“This is the power of a new dao!” The Black Armor nodded with excitement. “This is a new path! Only dao can enable one to metamorphose and grow stronger. Simply connecting 360 supernatural locks has brought forth the strength of a new dao!”

The crowd nearly sank into a frenzy with his words.

“Does the senior mean that our strength will metamorphose after opening 360 supernatural locks?” Li Hao asked incredulously.

“Yes!”

The group was first overjoyed, then anxious and fretful. Li Hao’s exuberant expression slid off his face. “360 locks??”

What a joke! That’s too much! Who can open 360 locks??

“What are you guys down about?” Yuan Shuo beamed. “You idiots, how much power did the senior infuse the model with? Just the equivalent of a seven element Arcanus, not a 360 element Arcanus! It’s just lighting up supernatural locks, not opening or snapping them! It’s a surface level excavation that’s less than maybe one tenth of their full capacity.

“It’s not even the equivalent of thirty-six locks and the difficulty within is less than ten full locks. Opening locks means fully snapping them, whereas the senior has only lit up one-tenth of their capacity. It’s a completely different difficulty level!”

Eyes lit up at his words. That was right! This was just a small foray into each supernatural lock.

“Partition each lock into ten segments so that opening just one segment will complete the circulation,” Yuan Shuo quickly explained. “Although that won’t be the equivalent of fully activating the entire system, just completing the circulation will result in an earth-shattering difference. Senior, try infusing the model with less power!”

“I have now accessed one hundredth of each lock.” The Black Armor withdrew some of his strength. “That is the equivalent of three element Arcanus. Who wants to try it?”

People looked at each other; Li Hao quickly honed in on one person. “Senior Light Sword, you give it a try!”

Me? Light Sword was rather surprised. Why me? There’s so many other people here. But... it’s fine.

It was just three element Arcanus. She was now the equivalent of six elements, so there really was nothing to three elements.

Zhang An struck without a second word!

Boom!

The blow even came with the sensation of breaking the void! That was a bit of an exaggeration as the void remained intact, but Light Sword could sense the inherent pressure. She roared and slashed with her sword!

Snowflakes flurried through the sky when the Light Sword technique was deployed.

BOOM!

Light Sword took one step back after the enormous collision. The sword light dissipated and the model’s fist had been sheared off. However, the woman was astonished and shocked. “That was almost five elements!”

The crowd was overcome with delight! That a three element Arcanus could bring the equivalent of five elements to bear was incredible! And this was just an experiment of the unattributed locks!

Li Hao’s face flickered through various expressions. “There is inherent difficulty with excavating the unattributed locks, but not that much when we limit the depth of exploration to one-hundredth of its capacity. The process might be easier than breaking through to three elements, but the cultivator can utilize the strength of five elements.. This is remarkable!”

It was a festival in the ruins, yet Yuan Shuo stared at the pinpricks of light.

“The great dao is too far and this path is too long! One-hundredth is such, what about one-tenth? What about fully opening all of the locks? And this is only the outline, there is still the core of the body to explore and other undiscovered areas. I’m sure there are other factors to consider as well. Just unattributed locks alone is sufficient for us to toil for the rest of our lives...”

That put a dampener on the atmosphere as the crowd mulled over his words. That was right! They were just experimenting with the unattributed locks at the moment. It took 360 locks just to trace the outline of the sword!

“How many locks does the sword require?” Yuan Shuo murmured to himself. “One thousand? Two thousand? This doesn’t require the aura, just a simple opening of the lock. It doesn’t need that much in terms of brains or comprehension, only a pure eruption.

“So long as there are no mistakes in operation, we will be able to complete the reforms of this method with countless simulations. Take the outline of the sword, for example. Its cultivation is foolproof if there is no error in the order of the 360 locks. Everyone will be on par with a five element Arcanus if that is complete. We can also avoid certain locks in the process and just complete a localized circulation. Oh my heavens...”

The connotations of his hypothesis were equally astounding.

“By my calculation, completing the excavation of 360 locks might put one on the level of an Empyrean King!” added the Black Armor.

The crowd blinked. How was that possible?

“I mean an Empyrean King of this age, not including the effects of core origin dao!” the Black Armor said calmly. “That would be the equivalent of a Saint in New Martial...”

“360 locks only makes me a Saint?” Li Hao frowned. Now that was another kind of incredible! He could at most be counted as a nine element Arcanus in his current state, but seven elements already made him an Apex!

“There is a big difference between each level.” The Black Armor was very calm. “If we approach the cultivation system from your martial dao, all levels from 7 to 36 element Arcanus count as Apex!

“According to my calculations, 36 to 120 locks are Immortal. 120 to 360 are Saint. Completing 360 should make one an Empyrean King based on this era’s standards. If taking into consideration an active core origin dao in New Martial, then all cultivation levels need to be lowered by one grade.”

The stronger one was, the greater the gap.

“It’s probably going to be very hard to excavate 360 locks!” Li Hao’s frown deepened.

“But the way ahead is clear!” the Black Armor responded faintly. “Is it hard? Based on your speed, you can open ten locks a year and finish all of them in thirty-six years. Is thirty-six years a long time to invest for the strength of an Empyrean King?”

Their heart was insufficient!

Apart from the beginning days of New Martial, not even those of that illustrious age could improve so quickly. A mere three decades for the strength of an Empyrean King? Zhang An wanted to die from envy!

He was a genius, but hadn’t made it to Empyrean King back in his time. That was not a level that one could set foot in just out of personal desire and hard work. It was a cultivation level second to only exalted emperor.

“Then... what if one fully opens all of the unattributed locks?” Yuan Shuo murmured.

“They’ll probably be an exalted emperor,” the Black Armor responded calmly.

Hard swallows could be heard throughout the crowd.

“Exalted emperor??” Director General Wang repeated incredulously. “Simply opening the locks will make one an exalted emperor?? Can one reach that level in such a straightforward manner? That’s so easy...”

The Black Armor didn’t say a word. Was it easy? Not at all! It was easy to speak of a situation when one wasn’t caught in it. A complete sword diagram might be comprised of thousands of locks! Wang Ye was free to try it for himself if he thought that was easy! It was bound to be more difficult the more progress one made.

However, none of these concerns were on people’s minds. For the first time, they felt that an exalted emperor was so close to them...

“We’ve all cultivated for more than thirty years,” Sky Sword suddenly said in a muffled tone. “And we’re roughly six elements. We’ve all opened the locks on our limbs, so that makes for ten total locks. It averages out to three years per lock, which means 360 locks will take one thousand years!”

That cast an abrupt stillness over the crowd. That’s right, Li Hao opens ten locks a year, but that’s not us! Setting aside the level of difficulty and whether or not opening the locks would succeed, can we survive one thousand years?

“That was then, and this is now,” Li Hao chuckled. “Energy is abundant in the world now, so it’ll be easy for everyone to open three to five locks a year. That means you’ll be an Empyrean King in one hundred years and be able to fight a Saint of New Martial. That’s incredible!”

It was just one hundred years, nothing compared to New Martial! Citizens of that age lived for tens of thousands, even one hundred thousand years!

“During New Martial, it was very common to see a genius take one hundred years to set foot into the Saint level,” Director General Wang sighed. “The gap is not that great when seen from this lens, so all of you are the geniuses of this age then.”

That comparison made these revelations palatable. One could only say that time was relative. He’d lived less than one hundred years—well, he was alive again now. The director general ignored the time they’d spent asleep and also heaved a large sigh of relief. He’d been nearly scared out of his wits before, thinking that all of these people could become Saints in the blink of an eye, or Empyrean Kings!

That was terrifying!

But now that he thought about it, it was nothing remarkable. Even Li Hao would only be a Saint of New Martial once he completed 360 locks. He would be in his fifties then, yet he was the favored son of heaven in this age and its leader. Just a Saint in his fifties? He was quite mediocre!

Don’t compare yourselves with me, you have to compare yourselves with those perverse geniuses. Director General Wang’s thoughts wandered to those such as the Human King. He was a premier exalted emperor in a few years, but you have to take a few decades to become a Saint, Li Hao. He’d smack you to death with one slap!

The world suddenly seemed a lot more fair to the director general.

Meanwhile, Li Hao didn’t care about any of this. “The key isn’t how long it takes, but what the road ahead looks like,” he said joyfully. “And if it will continue onward. Can it be made mainstream? Can everyone walk it? As for time, that is affected by potential, resources, and opportunities. That’s not important!”

It was enough that there would be a road ahead so long as they followed the prescribed order of things! As for the inherent difficulties or time required, perhaps they wouldn’t see its end for their entire life. That was a person specific problem that had nothing to do with martial dao.

The crowd nodded at his words.