Star Gate

Chapter 416: One Step to Heaven, One Step to Hell (I)

Yuan Shuo once described to Li Hao a similar performance of despair when the old man’s heart tore and there was no hope for him to break through to Dominator. He’d spoken of it with equanimity in his expression, but his tone and the look in his eyes spoke of hopelessness.

Hong Yitang had once taught Li Hao and He Yong had also given him a few pointers...

Martial masters!

They were martial masters of Silver Moon and the vast territory of the province belonged to martial masters!

Li Hao decided to take a chance and bellow, “Hurry and finish the fight, martial uncles! I have a way of doing up the supernatural locks again!”

A sword shook heaven and earth after his words; Hong Yitang brightened! Li Hao? Doing up the supernatural lock again?

He Yong lit up. He sent the giant ape flying with a punch when a new thought struck him. “What do you need?”

“Countless mysterious power stones and an origin weapon!”

“Alright!”

BAM!

He Yong lost his mind as he punched again and again, fighting so ferociously that it was like his fists were the only thing that existed in the world.

“Hand over one thousand mysterious power stones and cease fighting, or you all die!” Hong Yitang shouted. He forced the four monster spirits back and bellowed this demand for good cause!

Of the four major spirits, the snake was drenched in blood, the tiger’s claws were shattered, the eagle’s wings had been run through, and the snarling ape never had a chance to seize the initiative from He Yong’s fists.

Hope dawned for the two powerhouses after they heard Li Hao. Would the young man lie? There... wasn’t a need to, not at this time!

Urgency nipped at their heels; they wanted nothing more than to make up for their losses. Otherwise, even killing these four wouldn’t be worth the effort.

“Make haste!” Hong Yitang’s sword intent became more concentrated as he exhorted, “If you drag your heels in making a decision, all of you will die when my organs are fully unsealed. Of course, I might go down with you too!”

He Yong punched himself in the lungs, coughed, then shrieked like a banshee, “Don’t force me to break my second supernatural lock! Hurry up!”

Shocked amazement appeared on the monster spirits’ faces. These martial masters... could become even stronger?? Why?! Did they intend to go down with their enemies?

“We... don’t have that many mysterious power stones...” came the eagle’s unique ripple.

“Every stone counts! Cough them up and I’ll have your head if you dare hide any!” Hong Yitang roared. Even if the monster spirits didn’t have that many, there would be enough with so many people dead at the scene and the origin weapons, right?

He looked at Li Hao up in the sky and shouted, “Do you need monster spirit blood?”

“......” The four monster spirits grew solemn. At this stage in the battle, they could tell that the two humans seemed to have tapped into their potential. If that could not be supplemented, they might really put their lives on the line and go down fighting.

“Not yet!” Li Hao called back. “But it might be better with the treasure inside the valley...”

At this point in the game, anything he could get would be wonderful.

The monster spirits shot severe glares at the young human in the distance.

“Just give us half,” Hong Yitang snapped out. “You brought this upon yourselves. If this can make up for our losses, we won’t cause further trouble for you!”

A cold light glinted in the eagle’s eyes, but it acquiesced upon seeing that the two humans were growing stronger and beginning to rage out of control. “Very well!”

Hong Yitang flew upward without another word. Some body parts and two storage rings appeared in his hand. He hadn’t forgotten about the Novas’ bodies either. There might be some mysterious power stones on them.

He Yong followed in his wake; the two shot for Li Hao. He was both nervous and excited. He could barely contain the fire energy in his body. Southern Fist would be a supernatural if this continued!

......

The outcome of battle was rewritten after the two Silver Moon martial masters erupted with everything they had. The ferocious martial masters once more proved that they were masters of the land!

However, there seemed to be certain faults and drawbacks to martial masters. Or rather, similar issues cropped up in all of the pioneers because there was no further road ahead. Thus, they had to lock their strength away and couldn’t easily erupt with it. They needed to bide their time, ordinarily speaking, or show a weak side to others.

It wasn’t that they didn’t wish to put their full strength into a fight, but that they couldn’t afford to do so. If they did, that meant the painstaking effort and labor of many years were destroyed in a few moments.

Southern Fist and Earthturner Sword barreled toward Li Hao. They weren’t afraid of the monster spirits running away or that they were waiting for the two to fully break through their supernatural locks. Although that meant the duo’s future was no more, their battle strength would increase explosively. The monster spirits might die a quicker death then.

The four monster spirits were keenly aware of the situation. Suppressing the two was the best choice at this time. They could not force the humans into further unsealing their battle strength—that would only result in grave injuries to both sides.

In fact, they hoped that the weak martial master in the distance could help the two to bring their raging strength under control. A battle to the death was inevitable otherwise!

......

He Yong was in more of a rush than Hong Yitang. Only the latter’s organs were damaged, but he was about to become a supernatural! This wasn’t what he wanted, so he threw himself forward even faster than Hong Yitang.

He rushed to Li Hao in the blink of an eye, his temper on the verge of annihilating the mountain. He was almost a full supernatural!

“How?!” He Yong roared. “Can you do it? If you can’t, I’m going to rip those four animals apart!”

He was almost out of his mind! So many years of painstaking effort for this path! No one knew how much effort he’d invested and what price he’d paid to strengthen his blood qi! Only proponents of this path knew how many thistles and thorns filled the way. He’d cut through them all and nearly died more times than one could count.

There was no way ahead! That kind of despair forced martial masters to search out their respective destinations on the path of martial dao, and now, he was about to become a supernatural!

He Yong was covered in blood; urgency and desire shone out of his eyes. Could a supernatural lock that was about to snap really be recovered?

As for blood pearls... There was only one Nova blood pearl around them. What good was that for?? It wouldn’t repair his lock!

Li Hao felt an incoming heat wave wash over him! That was the strength of erupting fire energy. He could even sense that He Yong’s heart was breaking. The man might not succeed in crossing over. He Yong’s heart might not be able to endure the strain and just explode.

None of these people had strong organs. Both He Yong and Hong Yitang were partially bluffing. They might be able to erupt with greater strength if they continued, but they were equally likely to die from rupturing all of their organs.

It was a fifty-fifty likelihood of either outcome, but the four monster spirits might all die if they were to take the bet.

Li Hao said nothing and quickly operated the Breathing Method of the Five Styles. Sword energy surged into his body, then to He Yong’s. A surge of force answered in kind, shaking the young man almost to the point of vomiting blood!

Such incredible blood qi shocked Li Hao. It was... too strong! Was this the strength required to beat major monster spirits into the ground? Was this just three transfusions? Bullshit! He Yong had changed out his blood at least ten times, that terrifying guy!

“Martial Uncle He, try absorbing the energy into your heart. Has your supernatural lock fully broken yet?”

“No...” He Yong devoured the energy without further discourse. He didn’t know what it was, but this wasn’t the time to care. His eyes lit up as sword energy rushed into his body, but they quickly dimmed. “There’s an effect, but it’s just a cup of water for a bonfire!”

A cup of water for a bonfire?

Li Hao’s eyes widened. He’d sent over quite a lot as sword energy was densest after it devoured an origin weapon. He hadn’t been stingy, but it was negligible to Southern Fist!

The young man drew upon the little sword and sent it into He Yong’s body. The man furiously absorbed it and compressed it all into his heart. He knew how to enhance his supernatural lock without needing guidance from Li Hao.

However, flames erupted from his body after a short while. “It’s not working, there’s too little energy...” He sweated profusely with panic.

Li Hao was stupefied by the reaction. Too little? He was transferring sword energy for all he was worth. He was being more generous than he was to his own teacher! This could only mean one thing—Southern Fist’s supernatural lock was too strong!

The young man took out eight mysterious power stones without skipping a beat. He also took out multiple storage rings and retrieved whatever stones he could find in them. As he searched, he continued to transfer more energy to Southern Fist.

The sword energy converted from an origin weapon was very plentiful. Vast sums of energy flowed into He Yong’s body, gradually quenching his fiery aura. Although sparks still appeared from time to time, the situation wasn’t worsening.

Li Hao didn’t even blink. The mysterious power stones he’d gathered from sixteen Solars totaled roughly one hundred pieces. This was the greatest amount he’d ever seen in one go.

He crushed them all; their energy enveloped him. He Yong’s face twitched—this was a lot of stones to him, but Li Hao...

He felt a complicated mix of emotions, but didn’t say anything.

Hong Yitang arrived moments later, continuously coughing up blood. However, he didn’t interrupt He Yong. The man was worse off than he was. He was just suffering from heavy internal damage, but He Yong was about to become a supernatural. He should naturally come first.

Hong Yitang swiftly rifled through the storage rings of two Novas and one peak Solar. There were naturally quite a few mysterious power stones among their possessions. The Revolution King and Half Mountain, in particular, were rich. Tidal Wave was laughably poor.

Being the representative leaders of their organizations, the Revolution King and Half Mountain’s storage rings produced nearly two hundred stones. But Tidal Wave... only had thirty!

Cheapskate! How was a Nova so poor??

Hong Yitang threw the stones and wind chime on the ground. He flew without pause and shot toward the sheared off mountain.