Under everyone's intent gazes, Li Hao once again approached the True Venerable Tower.
He crossed the tower's threshold, and darkness engulfed him like a tide. When he opened his eyes again, he stood on the second floor.
The shadowy pillar stood before him. He had not been transported directly to the battlefield.
Li Hao's eyes flickered slightly. Already forming a plan for the battle, he made a few preparations before reaching out to touch the pillar.
In an instant, the pillar drew his body inside as though absorbing water.
The scene before him changed. The surrounding darkness fluttered away like scraps of paper, revealing a vast yet desolate world like an unfurling, magnificent painting. Winds swept toward him from every direction.
The pillar hovered high in the air, towering majestically. Dark purple light rapidly gathered upon it, converging on a single point as Li Hao's projection slowly took shape.
Just before the projection finished forming, Li Hao swiftly called up his panel, selected Transcendent Chess Heart, and embedded it into his Body Movement Dao.
Following the panel's prompt, he confirmed... Li Hao felt an ethereal Dao thought descend and envelop him, followed by a boundless sea of information surging into his mind.
In an instant, his thoughts seemed to sink into chaos, and the flow of time seemed to stop. Countless memories of light and shadow, along with legacies of Dao sounds, appeared before his eyes.
It felt as though decades, even centuries, had passed. Yet when Li Hao came back to himself, only an instant seemed to have elapsed outside.
The projection had finished forming, but he did not immediately attack Li Hao. Instead, he cupped his hands slightly, then gestured for Li Hao to begin, just as he had last time.
Li Hao, however, raised his head slightly.