Star Gate

Rather than being a term that denoted strength, it was an honorific for Heaven Favored. It indicated that the bearer had ascended the moment the supernatural world awoke. They were supernatural by birth; not one of those who had to put in painstaking effort to graze the threshold of this domain.

Such supernaturals were typically premier powerhouses. This Divine Brokensky was said to have become otherworldly the moment the supernatural came to being. After twenty years, he was one of the most experienced of his peers and part of the strongest cohort.

He was greater than Sunflare!

The thunder supernatural across from Huang Yun shifted and said coldly, “To think that Yuan Shuo would break through to Dominator of Thousands… No wonder you guys dared get involved, you’ve got some nerve!”

A Dominator martial master!

They were almost extinct in Silver Moon. Yuan Shuo was the only one to appear in recent years. But as terrifying as Dominators were, he faced Divine Brokensky!

Huang Yun set his jaw and didn’t respond. It was entirely unexpected that Yuan Shuo would break through and be so damned unlucky. He faced a Heaven Favored on his first demonstration of full strength!

They were in deep trouble!

Both Sunflares could tell that Yuan Shuo held the upper hand and had beaten his opponent to spitting blood with a string of powerful attacks. However, this advantage was just a facade if he didn’t severely injure the other with one move!

……

“Holy fuck!” Liu Long’s world was upended. “A Dominator of Thousands!”

Shock chased desire over a sea of incredulity in his eyes. Yuan Shuo had ascended!

Liu Yan and the others had arrived moments earlier and allied with the three Night Watchers to barely fend off the four supernaturals. But as the two sides exchanged blows, an unbelievable battle broke out elsewhere.

Yuan Shuo and a premier heavyweight beyond Sunflare!

A clash beyond Sunflare was taking place in the insignificant Silver City!

As taken aback as he was, Liu Long roared “Kill!”

They had to kill the four in front of them as Yuan Shuo was unlikely to withstand that powerhouse. A Dominator was only barely on par with Sunflare.

……

In the sky.

Yuan Shuo again bounded through the air in an extreme frenzy. He waved his fists around, unmarked by hesitation found in the elderly. Punch after punch with a moderately sized rock in his right hand, he used it as a brass knuckle in his blows.

Long Hair didn’t pay attention to the brass knuckle at first, but then it immediately defused the mysterious energy in his chest when one of those punches connected. He shook when the professor then leveraged momentum to pulverize his organs.

What is that? A supernatural object? It can break my defenses and harm my internals!

Additionally, extremely forceful mysterious power surged into the supernatural’s body to further grapple with the man. It blew through through his defenses.

Yuan Shuo doggedly kept up the offensive. Since he held the winning hand, he needed to keep playing it until the other was dead or lost the ability to fight. He’d taught this to Li Hao, that victory was claimed only when the enemy could no longer stand or offer resistance!

……

A shell-shocked Li Hao stared dumbly at where two premier powerhouses had split the earth in their struggle. Was this possible through human strength?? So this was Dominator of Thousands? How incredible!

Prior to this, he’d been of the opinion that as strong as Dominators were, their abilities were limited as they were still flesh and blood. They might not even measure up to more powerful grenades. Today, reality slapped him and his small worldview in the face.

The ground fissured when Yuan Shuo pushed off. Blood and qi burned as if they were in a real furnace and evaporated the rain in the air. Wherever he stood was a locale of dry weather.

Was this attainable via grenades? Not even certain cannons measured up to the destructive force contained in one of the professor’s moves. One had to keep in mind that a human was deploying these techniques, one extremely nimble human at that!

No wonder the army exercised dwindling restraint over the supernaturals!

When it was just Darkmoon, Li Hao could see how a dozen or two experts armed with guns and a proper plan could easily dispatch one. When it came to Dominator, the enemy would have to be an utter fool and insist on direct combat for the soldiers to do anything. The situation would be no different with a full complement of one thousand troops.

On the other hand, all the supernatural needed to do was to exercise a bit of prudence and find a chance to whittle away at the soldiers. Even one thousand troops would be defeated then!

“Scary!” Li Hao murmured to himself and looked at the scarlet shadow in front of him. How nice of the shadow to shield him from the ripples!

This scarlet shadow was enormously strong to be able to block the fallout from two premier heavyweights. Li Hao smiled ruefully as he caressed the small sword in his hand. Despite its sealed state, it was able to harm the previous shadow and even make the entity take physical form. It… wouldn’t work this time, would it?

The little sword’s power was limited; this was likely outside of its reach. Meanwhile, his teacher was formidable! He kept up a furious barrage and remained on the front foot. Li Hao, however, understood that the enemy must be a hair stronger. Otherwise, his teacher would’ve long captured his opponent after ambushing and inflicting the first injury!

Battles between true titans were swiftly concluded unless they were evenly matched. Li Hao suddenly saw the scarlet shadow shift, as if it wanted to leave.

Indeed, it was preparing to join the battle and step away from protecting the young man. If Long Hair was reinforced by this entity, that would land the professor in difficult straits. Plainly, the supernatural had come to his senses and realized the importance of swiftly dispatching Yuan Shuo.

“It’s leaving…”

Real trouble would arise if the scarlet shadow left. Li Hao was afraid of death and pain, but even more so of stabbing himself to death. There was no room for hesitation, however. He raised the jade sword and plunged it where his heart was!

His heart blood!

His teacher had said that it might unseal the sword. Well then, a quick experiment would reveal the answer, wouldn’t it?

Extreme pain rocked his body! Maybe he’d stabbed it too deeply and accidentally punctured his heart? Was he going to die now?

Who knew?

Who the hell cared?

All he knew was that he needed to keep the scarlet shadow here. It could not be permitted to join the fight no matter what! Could the jade sword accomplish that after being unsealed? Who knows?

Let’s bet on it!

Indeed, this was a gamble. Yuan Shuo was betting that he could take care of his opponent and Liu Long was betting that he could hold his own against supernaturals. And now, Li Hao joined them at the table with his family heirloom. He gambled that it could be unsealed and used against the scarlet shadow!

“Kill!!” Li Hao charged the scarlet shadow as soon as he pulled out the sword. Under normal circumstances, he would not be able to touch it, so the shadow ignored him. But when the jade sword emerged from the young man’s chest, it exuded a faint illumination that powered it to stab into the shadow’s depths!

“Ah!!” A faint scream seemed to come from the shadow.

Is it alive??

He didn’t know! All he knew was that he needed to kill this thing, so he pulled the sword out and stabbed it forward again!

The shadow moved this time, seemingly provoked to irrationality by the attack. It was no longer under Long Hair’s control and shifted to red smoke, filtering into Li Hao’s chest.

Energy exploded like fire in the young man’s body! It was powerful beyond comprehension!

Li Hao roared with fury and called upon the Breathing Method of the Five Styles. Cosmic power surged in response. He knew that the scarlet shadow wanted to burn him alive, just like it’d done to Little Yuan!

But… I have Stellaris!

Li Hao saw a different world the moment the fiery energy expanded in his body. He suddenly knew what Little Yuan had seen, why he’d struggled to get away, and how he’d known that his best friend was the next target.

A vastly different world appeared in Li Hao’s gaze as his eyes pierced through all matter! A diagram of the eight trigrams hovered over Silver City—an absolutely massive picture that shrouded the entire city!

Each of the eight corners corresponded to a different direction and a thread ran from all of them. One was tied to Li Hao; the other seven threads were not in Silver City. They were all gathered in the same spot!

It was as if someone had forcefully pulled the other seven away.

Li Hao understood the situation in this moment. This was likely the scene that Little Yuan had looked upon, with the exception of one of the threads tied to him and the other tied to Li Hao. Little Yuan might not be the sharpest tool in the box, but he understood after this that the next on the docket was Li Hao, someone else relevant to the eight trigrams.

“So this… is what you saw?” Li Hao swiftly put everything out of mind and furiously operated the breathing method, taking in vast sums of cosmic power.

Both cosmic power and strength from the scarlet shadow swelled in his body! His organs vibrated as they were ripped apart—the scarlet shadow swiftly moved on to crushing his meridians. Cosmic power followed in its wake and extinguished any fire it came across.

……

In the distance.

Long Hair looked on with dismay. Being continuously suppressed by Yuan Shuo, he wanted to recall the scarlet shadow to help him defeat the old man. He would have some breathing space when Yuan Shuo was distracted and could recover his true battle strength to destroy the old bastard.

But his summons failed!

The scarlet shadow did not return!

Damn it! What’s going on?

He didn’t have the time or effort to spare—Yuan Shuo’s offensive was tyrannical and domineering. This Dominator’s internal force was so destructive that it was more than his level. In terms of categorization, it was much more than internal force!

Yuan Shuo shouted as supernatural locks manifested over his body. He was going to break them, ascend, and kill his foe!

BOOM!

A lock exploded, expanding his strength. He dimmed the stars and moon with his next punch!

A dragon of qi and blood encircled Long Hair—the supernatural erupted with radiant golden light in response. He laid about with killing intent, fracturing the dragon wherever he could.

Both parties were caught in the fervor of battle, they didn’t care if it resulted in a pyrrhic victory anymore. Yuan Shuo was stronger after one of his locks broke!