Star Gate

Chapter 400: Known Throughout the Lands (IV)

He Yong had seen it clearly that day and followed Li Hao around the subsequent days. The young man wore a smile on his face, but he was even more ruthless and coldhearted than Yuan Shuo when it came down to things. He Yong was well aware of Li Hao’s situation.

He was an orphan with a master on the run and a friend killed by Red Moon last year. Liu Long and the others hadn’t known him for long. The young man was a person without much warmth in his bones. All of his affection was likely centered on Yuan Shuo. It was not a good idea to antagonize the fellow.

Madame Bai inclined her head and didn’t repeat the idea of recruiting Li Hao.

“Also, don’t let Hu Dingfang and his wife try,” Southern Fist warned. “Playing on emotions may not be a good move. That guy reached out to Wang Henggang of the Inspectorate and an unfamiliar Hong Yitang, but didn’t go to his senior sister and martial brother-in-law. He might actually nurse the idea to clean house for his master, so be careful.

“Yuan Shuo will keep their relationship in mind, but he won’t. Not to mention, there’s no relationship between them. It’s a very common occurrence for final disciples to do some house cleaning for their masters. You’re a martial master too, so you understand!”

The look in Madame Bai’s eyes hitched and she nodded, fully dismissing the notion. Indeed, final disciples were sometimes placed more highly than founding disciples. If he really was going to tidy up the discipline, Yuan Shuo might not say anything once he found out. But she still asked, “Does Brother He think he can make it out?”

Could Li Hao escape the encirclement of Novas from the three great organizations?

“It’s hard to say!” He Yong intoned. “Only Red Moon has set their hearts against him. Yama and Celestial might not have their Novas continuously chase him down. After all, the ruins of Battle Heaven are about to open and the three great organizations will not let that slip through their fingers. Red Moon probably won’t give up—their elders are likely headed that way as we speak. Elder Tidal Wave is traveling over from the three northern provinces.”

There was an elder in residence in the three northern provinces before. Being near the sea, he was a water powerhouse. Blue Moon likely wouldn’t leave his post even with the elder arriving in the province, he had to stay on guard against Hou Xiaochen. That would leave the elder free to pursue Li Hao.

Half Mountain might be coming from Celestial. As for Yama, it remained unknown if more powerhouses would rush to Silver Moon. Otherwise, the Parity King might not go after the young man. If the Revolution King went, he would be the one dead in an encounter, so he wouldn’t go either.

He Yong quickly ran through several possibilities and breathed out with a smile. “Let’s keep looking. Additionally... I want to go watch the fun too. I’ll be back when the ruins open.”

“You’re going?” Madame Bai blinked. What are you going for?

“I want to watch the show.” A chuckling He Yong walked out of the room. “They won’t dare run afoul of me, I represent the royal family, after all...”

He vanished after those words, leaving a Madame Bai with a shifting look in her eyes. Southern Fist had remained here all this time and was suddenly seized by an interest to participate. Nothing... untoward would develop if he went, right?

......

The winds were minor on this day. Li Hao’s name was known throughout Silver Moon after one night and made its way toward the various corners of Skystar Dynasty. The martial masters of Silver Moon once more stepped into the limelight and the eight families became a point of note again.

A man sitting in the center of a main hall in an enormous mountain palace located in the central region flipped through some reports. He blinked when he looked at a latest report and cursed lowly, “The fuck! My daughter’s still there! I thought you’d keep quiet for a while, but damn if you didn’t act fast!”

He cursed up a storm in a fit of temper!

Bastard! I thought you’d spend some time training your troops, but you did all this in just a few days??

He vented his anger with a hearty round of cursing and spat at the end for good measure. He pulled a long face as he looked at the bodies littered over the ground. “Are all the Novas dead? I killed everyone in this massive base and stayed here for another two days, but not a single Nova has come by to assess the situation?”

Sigh. Forget it, let’s withdraw. Ying Hongyue’s probably in a bad mood after Li Hao’s antics, he doesn’t have time for me.

......

The northern reaches of Silver Moon.

After making a name for himself in that battle, Li Hao was fleeing to the north with his Demon Hunters. They ran four hundred kilometers in one night—this was no exaggeration. They really covered four hundred kilometers, keeping up a fast pace every hour and reaching fifty kilometers an hour at top speed.

On foot!

Some of the martial masters were beyond exhausted. Martial masters were strong enough to maintain this speed for an hour or two. But an entire night? Even some of the late Sunderers were hard pressed to keep up.

And yet, no one said anything.

Some had complained when they traveled through the mountain forests on the first night, finding Li Hao a poor leader. But this time, they all grit their teeth and continued running, even those with aching internal injuries. They’d been won over by the young man in front of them through the span of a few days. This was a real martial master!

With him present, the Demon Hunters would dominate the four corners and hunt down supernaturals, displaying the glories of martial masters once more. Some of them supported each other and a few even carried injured comrades on their backs. They were now brothers-in-arms!

None of them were soldiers, but after consecutive days of fighting, they understood what it meant to be brothers-in-arms.

The heavy black armor was making it difficult to breathe for some, but no one took it off. This was lifesaving equipment. Otherwise, some of them absolutely would’ve died last night with all the Sunflares that were on the scene.

There were no fatalities thanks to the combination of armor, Liu Long, and formations. Only some people were shaken by mysterious power.

The sky brightened—there was no one present in the desolation around them. Li Hao coughed a few times and raised his hand. The group behind him immediately stopped and looked at him with ardent eyes.

“Do you see the large mountain ahead?” Li Hao chuckled. It looked close at hand, but was quite far away. Although it’d long appeared in front of everyone, it was still very far away despite running after it for a long period of time.

“That mountain is called Ash Mountain!” The young man looked into the distance. “There’s a small city there called Silver City! Silver City lies on the border of Silver Moon and the border of the dynasty! Books says that it’s another nation after we cross Ash Mountain, one called Great Li!

“Silver City is my home!” Li Hao declared with emotions. “The furthest place I traveled to as a child was Ash Mountain. Today, I bring you there! It is a precipitous place that’s long been claimed to be as difficult as scaling the mountains...

“We will head east from Ash Mountain, past the peak and past the range. We will not go north as that is where Great Li is. Although the two nations have stayed out of each other’s affairs for one hundred years, we do not know what the situation is in Great Li. We head east, passing through the north of the province until we reach its end and connect with Rift Canyon again. We’ll return to the canyon!

“We’ll let them think that we ran away.” Li Hao smirked coolly. “That we ran off to Great Li. But we haven’t! Silver Moon is our land, why should we leave? We’ll rush back from Rift Canyon. As strong as the three great organizations are, they’re nothing after we kill all of their supernaturals!

“We’ll kill our way back and then hunt the demons! Demon Hunters!”

“Demon Hunters!” roared his people in fine fettle. We’re not leaving! We’ll make our way back through Ash Mountain and Rift Canyon, covering the entire province!

Silver Moon was very vast, but they were willing to follow Li Hao and brave the thistles and thorns of the province if for no other reason than the fact that martial masters loved this kind of challenge.

Li Hao laughed and coughed a bit. Liu Long frowned at his reaction. He hadn’t paid attention to the young man’s coughing before, but now he was worried. Li Hao had coughed here or there along the way—were his internal organs damaged?

“Come, let us enter Ash Mountain! There’s a lot of rain in the mountain that can erase our tracks!” Li Hao waved his hand to send his people in at a dead run. Although they didn’t know what the situation inside the mountain might be, they weren’t worried with Li Hao in the lead. The mountain was a bright path that would lead them to renewed heights!

......

After running full tilt for more than an hour, Li Hao’s group shifted from precipitous mountain paths into the mountain range of Ash Mountain. Towering trees, birdsong and animal calls, as well as fresh air seemed to bestow them new life.

Dense leaves effectively concealed their footsteps. Liu Long, Li Heng, and the others held a murmured conversation before they caught up to the scouting Li Hao.

“Leader, we have the collection results!”

“Speak.”

“Mysterious power rings in the most at twelve thousand cubes! Most of it comes from the Solars. Apart from their own energy, they also carried some energy rings.”

Six Solars alone had contributed nearly eight thousand cubes. Added to that their energy rings of several hundred cubes each meant that the Solars equated more than ten thousand cubes. The rest had come from the Sunflares. Each person reaped nearly three hundred cubes. Much of the energy had dissipated when Liu Long killed them, so only twelve thousand total cubes were forthcoming from the last fight.

“Twenty-seven mysterious power stones! The Celestial powerhouse carried the most. He had nine pieces whereas Red Moon had the least...”

Li Hao furrowed his brows. That wasn’t much! Just twenty-seven? One had to know that he’d crushed eight just to refill the little sword. He’d refilled it again later on for a total of twelve stones, yet they hadn’t collected many...

“There are twenty-two energy rings, six storage rings, as well as a few treasures we don’t recognize...” Liu Long hesitated. “But there’s supernatural ripples over them, so they should be supernatural objects.”

That was quite a lot of energy rings; only Solars would have storage rings. Li Hao made swift mental calculations. He was dissatisfied with these gains. They fell below expectations as he thought these Solars would give him at least forty stones.

What a bunch of poors!

They were worse off than the two Night Watcher Solars!