Nine Heavens Martial Emperor

A month after the Starry Sky Ancient Road opened, many Martial Artists had already left it, but Lin Hao and his team were still lingering within.

It wasn’t that Lin Hao was in danger; he was simply well aware of the perils awaiting them after they left the Ancient Road. Thus, he spent most of his time cultivating.

With Yunxi in the group, Lin Hao was no longer worried at all about the safety of Meng Qing and the other two.

After all, Yunxi possessed the Beast Taming King Physique. In a sense, this made her even better than Lin Hao at perceiving dangers on the Starry Sky Ancient Road.

This allowed Lin Hao to cultivate with complete focus.

After reaching the Soul Gathering Realm, Lin Hao had very little time for cultivation and had almost never practiced at night.

However, cultivating the Divine Illumination Scripture required absorbing the power of the stars, which was why his progress was slow.

But things changed after Yunxi joined. Lin Hao deliberately traveled more during the day and would stop to cultivate at night.

This continued for several days.

Exactly one month after the Starry Sky Ancient Road opened, Lin Hao, Meng Qing, and the others were approaching its exit.

Just then, Lin Hao came to a sudden halt and told Meng Qing and the other three women to wait.

The four women had no objections. Over this period, Lin Hao’s actions had already proven he was worthy of their trust.

In the past few days, their cultivation levels had all improved just by following him.

Meng Ru had reached the Sixth Layer of the Soul Gathering Realm, while Lu Diewu had reached the Fifth Layer. As for Yunxi, after letting go of her obsession, her cultivation had soared to the Seventh Layer.

Meng Qing’s progress was even more astonishing; she had already reached the Fifth Layer of the Soul Gathering Realm.

This was simply unimaginable.

However, after witnessing the phenomena that occurred whenever Lin Hao cultivated these past few days, the four women felt their own progress was insignificant in comparison.

Even now, they still remembered the shock of seeing Lin Hao cultivate at night for the first time.

Lin Hao’s Divine Soul was his very own True Self, and he could even draw upon the stars to nourish it!

This was beyond their comprehension.

This was especially true for Yunxi. As the princess of the Mo Yun Kingdom, she had studied martial arts texts since childhood and knew many secrets of the martial path that were hidden from the common person.

Yet, the concept of using one’s True Self as a Divine Soul and drawing upon starlight to nourish it was completely absent from the ancient records—not even a single mention.

Lin Hao was simply astonishing. At the time, Yunxi had even felt a surge of joy.

She was rejoicing in the choice she had made.

In the period that followed, whenever Lin Hao cultivated, the four women would also cultivate alongside him.

Cultivating alongside Lin Hao was what led to their current achievements.

Now, as Lin Hao stopped, the four women didn’t ask why. They simply stood quietly by his side.

Lin Hao looked up at the sky, his expression extremely grave.

Just a moment ago, Lin Hao had suddenly sensed the auras of Yang Peng and the others.

To be precise, he had sensed the aura of their Divine Souls.

After all, the Divine Souls of Yang Peng and the others had been forged by Lin Hao, so he naturally had a strange connection to them.

Sensing the disturbance in all four of their Divine Souls, Lin Hao knew without a doubt that they were in grave danger.

"They’ve been defeated," Lin Hao said after a moment.

Even though he was a great distance away from Yang Peng and the others, Lin Hao could accurately sense the state of their Divine Souls.

The Divine Souls of all four were incredibly weak.

The four women didn’t know who Lin Hao was talking about, but even the normally cheerful Meng Ru furrowed her delicate brows.

She also had a strange, faint sensation, but it was too weak to decipher.

After another moment, Lin Hao’s brow twitched, a flash of surprise in his eyes. Then, his pupils constricted sharply.

He had sensed Shenshan’s Divine Soul.

Shenshan’s Divine Soul was far stronger than the other four—absurdly so.

Although he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, Lin Hao immediately knew the reason.

Time passed, and Lin Hao’s expression grew more and more solemn.

’They were defeated even with the combined strength of all five of them. I can only imagine how powerful their opponent must be.’

"Stand guard for me. I need to cultivate," Lin Hao said, immediately sitting down cross-legged and beginning his practice.

His cultivation hadn’t progressed quickly during this time; he had only reached the late stage of the Sixth Layer of the Soul Gathering Realm.

Thanks to the immense Chaos True Essence he obtained from cultivating an imperial art, even an ordinary Martial Artist at the Late Seventh Layer of Soul Gathering Realm would be no match for him.

But Lin Hao knew his current cultivation was still far from enough.

The Martial Artist dueling Shenshan and the others was very likely one of the Ten Young Masters.

From the Divine Soul fluctuations just now, Lin Hao estimated that he would need to be at least at the Seventh Layer of the Soul Gathering Realm to have a fighting chance.

And now, he was only a single step away from the Seventh Layer of the Soul Gathering Realm.

But this single step should not be underestimated; Lin Hao had been stuck here for ten days.

Lin Hao sat cross-legged and entered a meditative state. The four women stood guard for him, and time flew by.

When night fell and stars appeared in the sky, Lin Hao’s body suddenly trembled, and his True Self Divine Soul leaped out.

Then, the four women saw that all the stars in the entire sky were being drawn upon by Lin Hao’s imperial art!

This kind of phenomenon had never happened before.

A moment later, the True Self Divine Soul above Lin Hao’s head began to glow, as if it had donned a suit of battle armor.

At the same time, Lin Hao’s Lifebound True Blood shone brightly, his bones and tendons hummed in unison, and Chaos True Essence swirled around him.

Then, all these elements began to move. After circulating for dozens of cycles, they fused with a deafening BOOM.

Lin Hao’s aura suddenly surged, becoming countless times more fearsome.

The four women had already been sent flying by the initial blast, but now they were forced to retreat even further.

However, joyous expressions appeared on all four women’s faces.

They knew Lin Hao’s cultivation had reached the Seventh Layer of Soul Gathering Realm!

The next moment, Lin Hao’s voice sounded in the ears of all four women simultaneously.

Without hesitation, the four women immediately did as he said, sitting cross-legged around Lin Hao and beginning to cultivate.

A moment later, all the worldly energy in the sky began to converge on Lin Hao’s position. The convergence grew increasingly fierce until it formed a massive energy funnel high above.

At this time, Lin Hao was still circulating the Divine Illumination Scripture.

However, there were even more stars in the sky now. Even though his cultivation had reached the Seventh Layer of the Soul Gathering Realm, he couldn’t absorb all of the star power.

The power of the stars was so vast that no matter how strong his Divine Soul was, he couldn’t absorb it all.

But all the star power he absorbed gathered and passed through the very center of the energy funnel.

Lin Hao consciously separated wisps of star power, allowing them to merge into the energy funnel.

This was the key to the four women’s rapid cultivation improvement!

The power of the stars was immense. When the worldly energy fused with it, it became a tremendous boon to the four women’s cultivation.

This continued for a full half hour before Lin Hao concluded his session.

Immediately, the four women also woke from their meditative state.

Their cultivation levels didn’t increase this time, but their foundations became more solid.

The four women were no longer surprised by this.

Every time, they would think they had reached the peak of what was possible for their level, but after each session, their foundations would be even more solid and their power even greater than before.