Star Gate

“That’s enough, Inspector General Mu.” Director Hao finally couldn’t stand it any longer. “I’ll put in a good word, but like I said, I’m just a deputy!”

With that, he ignored the fatty. That damned fatty was going to be the death of him! The director strode off to where numerous bloody chunks littered the ground. The remains were yet to be cleaned up.

“This is the corpse of the Solar—his power can be found within,” Huang Yun rapidly explained as he followed the director. “I was worried that rashly tidying it up would disperse the power. Director Hao has come at the perfect time! You are also a Solar, so you can safely collect the energy!”

Mysterious power among supernaturals was categorized by strong and weak. It wasn’t undoable for a Sunflare to gather a Solar’s power, but seepage and dissipation could easily occur. That would be a lamentable waste!

In that case, it was better to leave the body where it was! Who knew how Yuan Shuo had taken down his opponent? It seemed that all of the energy remained inside the chunks in a sealed state.

Director Hao bent down to pick up a piece. Blood-red blade energy wafted out of it, slamming into the palm of his hand. A roar of thunder later saw a faint mark on the director’s palm. He regarded it solemnly.

“Such keen and dense blade energy!” Remnants were sufficient to injure him! Yuan Shuo’s strike against his opponent was stronger than they imagined!

Was this a Dominator of Thousands?

Director Hao had met Dominators before, but not in the Silver Moon province. He’d exchanged blows with them; it was absolutely ludicrous to entertain that a Dominator could reach beyond his level to kill a Solar. When supernaturals reached this level, they lacked neither battle experience nor tempering through life and death. They fell short only when it came to length of cultivation; supernaturals matched veteran martial masters in every possible way.

But… Divine Brokensky had died to a lower level Yuan Shuo!

Mu Sen and the others shook with shock. The remnants of the professor’s blade qi managed to hurt Director Hao—incredible!

“His weapon is remarkable!” the director pronounced. “And not just his weapon, but his secret art too! The consciousness is combined with blood qi, the mind with the body. All are merged into one… As expected of a premier martial master who once swept the lands!”

The old man was stronger than other martial masters because he knew more secret arts!

The look in Director Hao’s eyes deepened. Would he have any advantage if he fought Yuan Shuo? He was a Solar close to Divine Brokensky’s level. If the professor could kill Brokensky, then he could very well kill the director too if optimal circumstances arose.

When it came to battle between powerhouses, it boiled down to favorable timing, geographic convenience, and good relations. Anyone could find themselves on the losing side.

“Red Moon will be rocked by Brokensky’s death!” the director added.

“Will they attack again?” Huang Yun asked worriedly.

“Hah, no need to worry about that!” Director Hao snorted. “Losing a Solar will make their hearts ache for a very long time! Red Moon’s main force is in the central region instead of Silver Moon. They can’t send that many people to this province. And if they did, they’d be worried about losing a second or third Solar!

“Of course, we still need to exercise prudence. The Night Watchers defend too many targets that are too monumental. We’re up against a loose organization that can easily stay out of sight. Caution is still in order!”

Mu Sen wasn’t interested in any of this—he knew it all. Thus, he cut straight to the chase. “How many cubes of mysterious power can we extract?”

That was the key! Who cared about the other stuff!

Director Hao studied the corpses strewn around the area. “Quite a bit of it has dissipated,” he identified after a bout of muttering. “We should be able to extract roughly one thousand cubes.”

One thousand cubes made for a structure ten meters long in all directions. It plainly exceeded the volume of a human being!

However, that wasn’t how mysterious power was measured. It needed to fully expand in an ice crystal container and assessed only after it ceased spreading.

Mu Sen frowned at the estimation. “That’s it? A Darkmoon usually yields twenty to forty cubes! Taking the average yields thirty. One Solar is worth only thirty Darkmoons?”

That was too little!

“That’s not how to look at it.” The director shook his head. “Not to mention, this one consumed a great deal of his power and his remains have been here for a night. One thousand cubes is already a decent harvest! And that’s possible only because not too much energy has dispersed.”

Huang Yun nodded and quickly added, “The Sunflare is the son of Ying Hongyue, a thunder supernatural! He also expended a lot of power, so it’ll be a lot if we get even two hundred cubes.”

The ten Darkmoons would amount to no more than three hundred cubes altogether.

Off to the side, Liu Long made quick calculations. Last night would yield fifteen hundred cubes! What an astronomical number! The Demon Hunters reaped only one hundred and twenty cubes from five supernaturals over five years! They were harvesting more than ten times that today, a feat that would take the team thirty years to reach. Granted, the disparity was due to the presence of a Solar.

However, Mu Sen still found the number to be unimpressive because the risk they’d taken wasn’t just ten times that of normal, but a hundred or thousand! Everyone would be dead if not for Yuan Shuo!

“There’s also a supernatural item,” Huang Yun continued. “The thunder supernatural carried a weapon!”

Sadly, the Solar had been empty-handed.

“Mm, not bad!” Director Hao nodded. “Where’s Yuan Shuo?”

“He disappeared last night with his student—the heir of the Lis!”

“I understand.” The director’s eyes darted around while he nodded.

A dog happened to enter the group’s line of sight, followed shortly by a strolling Yuan Shuo and Li Hao. When Yuan Shuo saw the newcomer from a distance, he whispered to his student, “Do you see the shorty in the front?”

“Yes.”

“He’s Hao Lianchuan, stationed at the Night Watcher provincial headquarters of Silver Moon! They have one principal and five deputies in Silver Moon—they’re all directors of the organization! This guy’s ranked in the top three, a force to be reckoned with other than the principal.

“It’s said that there are possibly two Solars from the Night Watchers in Silver Moon. One of them is the principal, the other is potentially him. I wasn’t certain before, but I can be sure after today that that guy is a Solar!”

Li Hao nodded, he could see it too. That ball of light could be seen from miles away!

“Teacher, are there only two Solars from the Night Watchers in our province?”

“Pretty much,” Yuan Shuo lowered his voice. “Don’t be thinking that there’s a lot of Solars out there. If there were, it would’ve been more than Brokensky yesterday! I told you before that I’d only have five opponents if I became a Dominator. There are about that number of Solars in the open in the province!”

The young man understood and whispered back, “So are you in the top five now, teacher?”

Although his teacher hadn’t entered a higher level, would the other Solars dare think lightly of him after he killed one of them?

“Let’s not go that far… top five?” Yuan Shuo smiled modestly and chuckled after a pause. “Would even number one dare raise his voice at me? I’m someone who’s killed a Solar, how about them? I might be the first one in the province to ever kill a Solar, do you comprehend?”

Cultivation levels were cultivation levels, battle strength was battle strength. As strong as the other Solars were, that didn’t mean they could kill those of their level. No matter how Yuan Shuo managed the deed, he’d killed one!

Just that alone ensured that the other Solars wouldn’t think of sparring with him.

“I paid quite a price to kill that Solar,” Yuan Shuo said in a normal voice as they drew near the others throughout the course of conversation. “I wonder if the conquests of battle are sufficient to compensate me!”

Conquests of battle!

A strange gaze entered Hao Lianchuan’s eyes. Huang Yun looked on with resignation and whispered to his superior, “When he left last night, he said all of the loot was his…”

How…. did they handle this?

Hao Lianchuan didn’t say a word. Yuan Shuo was an old acquaintance!

“Professor Yuan!” he greeted while the old man made his way to them. “Congratulations to Professor Yuan for ascending to Dominator of Thousands, slaying a Solar, and becoming the greatest among Silver Moon martial masters! You are truly a walking god!”

“You flatter me!” Yuan Shuo chuckled and raised cupped fists. “It was all luck! The guy wasn’t good with his brains and didn’t know how to strike back despite being hacked to pieces. You guys know how supernaturals are—they’re all short on battle experience. I couldn’t help but hack him to death with just a few blows. If I’d known Solars were this easy to kill, I should’ve tried my hand before breaking through. Maybe I could have made the crossover after killing one!”

How awkward!

Huang Yun didn’t know if Hao Lianchuan felt awkward–he was very awkward at any rate. It didn’t seem possible to debate this topic with a Dominator who’d killed a Solar.

“That is certainly true.” Hao Lianchuan didn’t seem to mind in the least. “Professor Yuan has practiced martial dao for decades and ruled the land twenty years ago. We juniors are naturally less than the professor when it comes to experience.”

You’re right, but you’re very old, so what’s the point of saying all this? This one hadn’t been this cocky before breaking through. Now that he had… he dared jeer at even Solars!

Yuan Shuo wasn’t in the mood to continue and turned to Li Hao with a chuckle. “Go on, have Mister Huang collect the mysterious power for you and gather whatever you should. We lost quite a bit last night and need to find some things to make us whole again!” He looked at Liu Long. “Where’s my disciple’s sword?”

Liu Long took out a small sword without a word, drawing a sharp glance from Hao Lianchuan. Was that the sword of the Lis? He didn’t know it was with Liu Long or he would’ve taken a look! What a pity he couldn’t say anything since Yuan Shuo was here.

“Chief, where are the others?” Li Hao murmured when he walked up to take the sword. There was no sign of Liu Yan and the rest of the team.