Star Gate

Chapter 727: Making Out Like Bandits (II)

“It was indeed pretty glorious,” Li Hao agreed with a laugh. “Earthturner Sword killed his enemy with one move. The Steppe Prince didn’t believe it even as he died.”

“Leader is strong too!” Hong Qing suppressed her impatience to compliment the leader. Li Hao was still stronger when her old man wasn’t around. “You killed even Hu Xiao, one of the founders of the nine ministries. Apparently you almost killed the Skystar King too...”

“.......”

Wut. I went after powerhouses of the nine ministries, how did this turn into almost killing the king? Li Hao broke out in laughter.

Someone else finally pushed himself out of the crowd as Hong Qing exchanged words with Li Hao. Wang Ming’s face was distorted from the force he was using to shove himself past people.

“Senior brother’s illustrious name is known throughout the world! Now that you are the Skystar Marquis and Skystar Governor General, we hear that you plan to hail yourself king in the royal capital! Do you need people? Is that why you’ve come back, senior brother? I can go! I’m not busy, I can be your footman!” Wang Ming babbled animatedly.

Li Hao didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He looked at Wang Ming—the fellow was now a Solar. Although he was an initial Solar, the strength was passable for his age. However, it wasn’t much in the grand scheme of things.

Most of the Demon Hunters had improved. Many were Dominators now. After cultivating at the little tree’s cave, Weeping Willow Sword heir Li Heng had been the first to break through. Hong Qing and some others had followed suit shortly thereafter, making for several Dominators in the small group that was the Demon Hunters.

Liu Long seemed to have set foot onto the path of Summoner of Spirit. But after Li Hao opened his eyes in Skystar City, he found everyone to be too weak. Granted, their level of accomplishment was worthy of praise. They’d smashed the first obstacle after reaching Dominator. Their rate of progress afterward wouldn’t be too slow.

“Wang Ming, I’ve offended a slew of powerhouses over there. You might get smacked to death if you go with me!”

“That’s no big deal! We won’t die that easily, not with senior brother there!” Wang Ming grinned merrily. “Even if we die, our names will go down in history!”

Everyone laughed, some with expectation, others with desire. They all wanted to go! Let’s go to the central region to make our name renowned throughout the world, strengthen ourselves, and fight all comers!

Sadly, they knew that they were too weak. They’d planned on going to Li Hao after they grew stronger, but eventually decided to remain in Silver Moon.

“Is Swordmaster Hong not with you?” Liu Long walked over with confusion. Li Hao had sent him on a trip to the Sword Sect before the young man left, but Hong Yitang was completely absent from his sect! First he ran off to the east, then immediately traveled to Skystar City upon his return. Now he was gone entirely, rendering Li Hao’s arrangements futile. There was no Hong Yitang at the Sword Sect, so what should they do there?

Run errands?

It was better to go out and kill some pirates!

“No, he won’t be coming back!” Li Hao laughed. “Martial Uncle Hong’s decided to stay at Skystar City to apply his knowledge.”

Liu Long’s eyes widened and he looked at the young man. He’d been quite willing when Li Hao wanted him to stay in Silver Moon before, but now...

“They say that there won’t be any upheavals in Silver Moon in the short term, is that so?” Liu Long asked after some thought.

“Pretty much.”

“Will you encounter further danger in Skystar City?”

“Does chief mean to say...”

“Why not... take all of us with you to the central region!” It was Liu Long’s first request to leave Silver Moon. Li Hao looked at him with surprise, but the man continued solemnly, ”I was thinking that I will have a place in Silver Moon after entering Summoner of Spirit because I’ll be able to kill Solars! I can safeguard the small city that is Skystar City then! Now I know that Arcanus aren’t that impressive, that a batch has already died, I feel that growing stronger is the only way I can accomplish my goals!”

He wanted to leave Silver Moon!

“Leader, take us with you!” Everyone chorused, unable to keep their eagerness and urges in check. Having weathered challenges in life and witnessed the greater world, they were no longer the ignorant martial masters of old. They’d seen much and wanted to see even more.

“I had similar thoughts with my return, but I was thinking that Skystar City is too dangerous and you guys...” Li Hao breathed out.

“Martial masters are not afraid of danger!” Liu Yan cut off the young man and dimpled at him. “Why are we martial masters if we’re afraid of death? We want to see the greater world that is in the central region!”

“So Sis Liu can’t sit still either?” Li Hao laughed. “You have much more confidence after becoming a Dominator.”

“I can’t just sit by and watch the others of the Silver Moon Guards grow famous.” Liu Yan smiled winsomely. “We want a taste of that for ourselves. The Silver Moon Guards are apparently well known through the central region now too. The people know of them, but they do not know the Demon Hunters!”

“It’s not out of the question,” Li Hao said after some thought. “It won’t be just you guys, the Silver Moon Guards will also be arranging for one thousand soldiers to head to Skystar City. Deputy Zhou from the provincial government will be coming too...”

There would be no issue with adding the Demon Hunters, just that...

“You will have opportunities in Silver Moon as well. You guys know about the little tree, it will continue to grow stronger in recent days. It will possess sufficient life force to help you train and provide an ideal sacred land of cultivation...”

“Martial masters in cultivation are not real martial masters!” someone roared. What was the point of always being in seclusion? No powerhouses ever walked out of a training room in isolation!

“As you guys wish!” Li Hao grinned and didn’t protest further. “But keep in mind that there will be real danger.”

“We know, leader, we’re not afraid!”

“Alright then. Prepare yourselves and pack your things. I may be returning to Skystar City the day after tomorrow.” Li Hao had wanted to take down Near River and open the passageway so that Silver Moon wasn’t blockaded anymore. After Deputy Zhou’s lecture, he gave up the idea. That would be an unnecessary tangent at this stage.

Just like Director General Zhao said, all he needed to do was announce that they would accept refugees for Near River to deposit five million, ten million on their doorstep. So long as Silver Moon was unafraid of death, Near River would send them everyone! They’d closed off the borders only because they didn’t want the refugees to stay in Near River.

Li Hao had accomplished everything he’d come back to do. All that was left was to wait for the little tree to coalesce enough Water of Life and deliver the seeds to it. Huang Yu might also return with a batch of armor. The young man could make another trip to Battle Heaven to conduct a second trade.

......

Li Hao had just set foot in the Silver Moon Guards base when Hao Lianchuan received word from the Night Watchers. He immediately charged over, saying a lot of words that all meant the same thing—take me with you! I want to go to Skystar City too!

There was nothing for the Silver Moon Night Watchers to do lately. The troublemakers had left, the three great organizations weren’t interested in the province. They’d either run off or died. The North Sea pirates were engaging in heavy in-fighting to determine their next spokesperson, and the East Sea pirates were going against each other to determine their boss...

There were no issues left for Silver Moon.

......

At the same time, Skystar City.

The royal city quieted down after Li Hao’s departure and return to Silver Moon. The fuss that’d been raised previously was slowly calming down.

The nine ministries were the nine ministries and Li Hao no longer killed people. Reports to the Skystar Commander Office dwindled because no one saw further action from the young man. The people chose to wait and observe, not daring to file a complaint.

The Night Watchers and Silver Moon Guards continued to go about their separate business. There was no integration or unification between the two.

A strong ray of sword intent rose from the Night Watcher headquarters on the third day of Li Hao’s departure. Yao Si immediately appeared in front of a small residence, as did some other youngsters—Big Eyes and the others. They were highly excited as Dao Sword was finally emerging from closed door cultivation!

Li Hao had occupied all of the headlines lately. Dao Sword, the one who’d killed Yama’s grandson and caused open war between the three great organizations and Night Watcher, had been in seclusion all this time. His placement on the Divine Masters Ranking was almost declining beneath the top ten.

“He’s finally out!”

“Yeah!”

“It’s been almost three months, hasn’t it?”

“Pretty much!”

“He’s missed out on a lot during these three months!” Conversation flurried; Yao Si listened quietly.

A person walked out of a small building moments later, his bearing genteel and urbane. He smiled faintly at Yao Si and inclined his body. “Director!”

“Mm.” Yao Si nodded back. “Metamorphosis? But you seem rather stable. So you stand a chance of making it to Arcanus?”

“Arcanus?”

“The name of the new cultivation level.”

“I see,” chuckled Dao Sword. He turned to Big Eyes and the others. “You guys look well too, you’ve improved and are not far off from metamorphosis.”

“What good is that?” Long Blade said glumly. “This is no longer an era of Novas. Arcanus can be found everywhere and a bunch of them died while you were in closed door cultivation. So many of them were killed a few days ago, don’t you know?”

“I could sense a thing or two.” Dao Sword wasn’t surprised. He was only in seclusion, not dead. He hadn’t been able to emerge because he’d been opening his supernatural locks. “It’s fine, we can continue to go forward! We can walk far only when there are many powerhouses. As opposed to one flower outshining the others, it’s better for a hundred to bloom together. We’ll have motivation with the Arcanus level in front of us, wouldn’t you say so?”

“You sure have an open mind!” mumbled Big Eyes. “The whole world’s changed while you’e been away! Director Yao is no longer the first officer at our Night Watchers anymore!”

“Ahem!” Yao Si coughed gently. Nonsense! How was he not?