Star Gate

“We’re going against the plant spirits first?” Deputy Zhou couldn’t help but ask. Why are you choosing such a strong target?

“For no reason other than the plant spirits have yet to recover to their peak strength.” Li Hao nodded. “The longer we wait, the more they recover! They’re easier to take down right now!”

People were alive and highly on guard against Li Hao. But plant spirits did not enjoy the same flow of information as humans did. They only knew that humans in the outside world were very weak. Their first thought would likely be that Li Hao was here to ask for a partnership, since the nine ministries had already set such a precedent.

“Then… are you sure you want to go against these ancient plant spirits? I’d thought you’d choose to cooperate with them…”

“That depends on the situation!” Li Hao sneered. “These seven chose to kill me, to say nothing of anything else. There’s no possibility of working together with them! If you’ll kill me for a few mysterious power stones, then I’ll naturally hit back at you!”

He bore no enmity toward the ancient civilization, even with his teacher’s multiple reminders that the ancient civilization was different from modern society. Yuan Shuo wanted him to be careful against the ancients.

Meanwhile, Li Hao was kindly disposed toward Battle Heaven, but he really hated those seven plant spirits. If you want to kill me, then I want to kill you!

“Deputy Zhou, you…”

“Don’t worry about me.” The deputy shook his head with a smile. “I don’t have supernatural locks, so I can’t cultivate the same way you guys do for now. I’m doing quite well at the moment, but you can let me absorb some core origin power after you kill the plant spirit. That’s a good resource for me!”

That was true! Those who walked the path of ancient martial dao would benefit from absorbing some core origin power. Although that wouldn’t put them on the path of core origin dao, it would still help.

It was more surprising that he didn’t have any supernatural locks. But upon further thought, that was right. He was an ancient martial cultivator, so how would he have any supernatural locks in his body?

“I’ll take care of some matters while you cultivate,” Deputy Zhou announced. “I can be of help if you’re going to fight a plant spirit. We’ll also have to draft some official documents, and don’t forget that the inauguration ceremony is the day after tomorrow! Don’t miss it! It doesn’t really matter anymore, but we need to let everyone see that we’re the state and government officials, not a private martial dojo!”

Heads bobbed up and down in the group. They really had forgotten about that occasion.

“Do you want to bring Yao Si into this?” asked Hou Xiaochen. “He’s strong enough and quite ferocious. If he can coalesce characters too, he’ll be at least a four element Arcanus!”

Yao Si’s martial master strength exceeded that of even Hou Xiaochen and Hong Yitang’s. If he was willing to unseal himself, he would absolutely be premier battle strength.

“He probably won’t be willing to,” Li Hao laughed. “I demonstrated the characters to him before, but he didn’t say anything about walking this path…”

Hou Xiaochen burst out laughing, as did the rest.

“Ai, you’re too young.” Deputy Zhou didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Someone like Yao Si isn’t as thick-skinned as He Yong. Since he’s chosen to cast his lot in your camp, that means he thinks well of this path. As he does, would he not be willing? It’s just that he isn’t familiar with you yet. He won’t raise the matter like He Yong would if you don’t speak of it. All he can do is just sit there. If you don’t bring it up, he won’t either until the day he dies or when he feels close enough to you.”

“Is that so?” Li Hao was surprised, but found that this made sense. He really had thought that Yao Si wasn’t willing to. “Then I’ll go ask him and be right back. Additionally, since there’s so many of us cultivating… we should find a quiet place to coalesce our characters. The disturbance will be too great otherwise.”

He needed to find an appropriate place. This area was not one, and traveling too far for one was not good either.

“I’ll go to the western outskirts for a look,” said the young man after some thought. “And see if we can go inside again. If we can… it might be a good idea to cultivate inside the ruins…”

Hou Xiaochen and the rest stared at him, stunned. Are you crazy? You know how strong that Black Armor is, and you still want to go back? You want to present your head on a silver platter to him?

“We’re official students now,” Li Hao smiled. “He said so himself that we can come and go anytime. This will just be bringing a few friends in with us, we aren’t breaking things. Will he kill us for it? It’s safe there and no one can interfere. There’s only a bunch of puppets and that Black Armor. I think that place is impregnable at this point in time!”

The group could only shake their heads at Li Hao’s audacity. As He Yong had entered the ruins before but hadn’t experienced the ensuing chaotic melee, he was confused and curious. “Are there powerhouses inside?”

“Of course!” Li Hao laughed. “Four hundred puppets and a Black Armor general or teacher?”

“Are they strong?”

“Yep, any puppet can easily swat you to death!”

He Yong’s jaw dropped. Hot damn! That dangerous? Why do you still want to go? What a crazy kid!

……

The Night Watchers.

Yao Si was face down in official business when Li Hao came striding through the air. He had so much to take care of lately since the Night Watchers were to join the Skystar Commander Office. All of the various departments beneath him were giving him trouble. Some had outright decided to defect and join local overlords—it was a thorny affair.

Yao Si swept an annoyed glance at the young man when he arrived. Look who’s all nice and relaxed! All you know is to fight and kill people—you don’t give a shit about anything else!

“Do you want something?”

“Cultivating a new dao, are you interested?”

“The kind having to do with characters?” Yao Si asked faintly.

“Yes.”

“What level of strength will I be if I cultivate it?” Yao Si stroked his mustache.

“At least four elements!”

“Let’s go!”

“……” Li Hao regarded him wordlessly. The man frowned at him.

“What? Let’s go and find a place to cultivate and keep the disturbance to a minimum. We need to be more decisive as martial masters. You also need to be more decisive as the tyrant of a locality!”

“……” Li Hao shook his head with helpless laughter. It was just as the others said, the director was waiting for him to raise the subject. So if I hadn’t, you wouldn’t have said anything?

“It will consume a lot of resources to convert your strength like this…”

“Have you given me anything after I sold my life to you?” Yao Si snapped impatiently. “Did you give me a signing bonus, a moving fee? Do you think none of that exists just because I haven’t mentioned it? Have you demonstrated anything of your sentiments after a premier martial master has joined your side with a massive faction?”

He’d demonstrated nothing at all! And you dare talk to me about expending a lot of resources for my breakthrough? Did you not get anything from the expedition? You have to make it worth my while to put my life on the line for you!

Li Hao blinked and found that Yao Si made a lot of sense. Even those sentenced to death received one last meal before they were beheaded. He abruptly slapped himself on the forehead. “When I executed those nobles… I forgot to give them their final meal, didn’t I?”

“……” Yao Si had no idea what to say. What do you mean by that?? Are you treating me as if I’m on death row?! I don’t like the sound of that!

“Let’s go!” Li Hao smiled.

“Is the commander leaving?” Little Ye hastily asked when the two exited the office.

“Yep.”

“I brewed tea…” she said regretfully. “I’ll brew it again when you come next time, commander.”

Li Hao nodded with a smile. Yao Si followed the young man out; Little Ye escorted both of them downstairs. She was slightly saddened to see Li Hao leave, but grew frantic when she saw that her superior was going to follow the young man. “Where are you going, director?”

“Out on business!” Yao Si snapped expressionlessly. So you only just noticed that I’m leaving? Are you my secretary or Li Hao’s secretary? I can’t keep someone like you around anymore!

“Oh I see. Watch your step then, director!” Little Ye responded offhandedly. The director would be safe enough at Commander Li’s side.

Yao Si nearly vomited blood. He looked at Li Hao, who looked back innocently at him. What are you looking at me for? Are you going to be jealous over something like this at your age? You’re so weird!

……

There was another addition to the group when Li Hao rejoined the group—Manager Yu. Ole Hou had not forgotten his secretary. However, she was indeed qualified to make the conversion. Li Hao chose only the martial masters who’d reached the stage of saturating their supernatural locks. They would be Arcanus after grasping his method.

There was no rush for those like Liu Long. They wouldn’t be Arcanus even if they succeeded in converting their power. They would be on par with a Solar or Nova at most, so this was an inconsequential step for them.

The group headed straight for the western outskirts, raising attention from vast sums of powerhouses. They frowned upon seeing Li Hao’s heading. Was he going to enter Evenround Martial again? Was it for treasures or something else? They’d tried sending in their own teams made of people who weren’t afraid to die, but entrance had been impossible. Had Li Hao claimed the ruins for himself?

……

Within the Ministry of Finance.

“He’s going again…” Liu Yunqing frowned. “It’s a very dangerous place. Has he reached an agreement with the powerhouses inside the university? Have other heavyweights or intelligent plant spirits awoken apart from those puppets?”

If that was the case, Li Hao would become ever more difficult to handle.

He said nothing after further thought. His ministry was among the ones that’d lost the least these days. All of their Arcanus were alive. With Li Hao openly running off like this, no one dared plot against the people he left behind.

……

Evenround Martial.

A Black Armor was sleeping in a massive hole beneath the center of the field. It suddenly opened its eyes and looked into the distance.

“Student Li Hao has returned to cultivate and brought along a few friends to join me. Are we granted permission to comprehend dao together?”

“……” The Black Armor didn’t know what to say. The kid was entirely too bold! He’d thought that Li Hao wouldn’t dare set foot in the ruins for the rest of his life, but here he was again, less than a day later! He really had incredible courage!