Star Gate

He was indeed injured, but his injuries had healed so quickly that there was almost no sign of them anymore. Meanwhile, Liu Yan almost forgot proper business after the small tiff with Yun Yao.

“Little Hao Hao,” she exclaimed. “Do you know that your big sis broke through last night?!”

She agitated her internal force with unbounded enthusiasm. A faint strand of white manifested above her fingertips. “I absorbed some mysterious power and progressed to Sunderer!”

The team paused with surprise, then broke out in general delight.

A breakthrough!

Liu Yan had stopped at Slayer of Tens for many years. Despite absorbing plenty of mysterious power, she continuously failed to break through or make the crossover. Today, she progressed without fanfare!

The team was overjoyed at first. After a while, Wu Chao suddenly turned despondent and whispered, “You’re a Sunderer now?”

“Yes!”

“This…” Wu Chao was glum. Still having his wounds bandaged, Chen Jian fell silent as well.

“Being a Sunderer is a good thing!” Yun Yao sighed as she tended to Chen Jian.

Li Hao could tell that the team was truly happy at first, but then not so happy. He understood.

It was indeed cause for celebration that Liu Yan had grown stronger and set foot into Sunderer, but the stronger a martial master was, the harder it was for them to become supernatural. Of this, the group was well aware.

The stronger one was, the harder it was to convert to the supernatural domain. Take Liu Long for example—his strength as a martial master grew by the day, but improvement was limited so long as he could not make the crossover.

Progress was much simpler in the supernatural system. Sunderers were barely on par with Darkmoons, yet look at Wang Ming, Li Meng, and Hu Hao. They’d easily set foot into Darkmoon at such a young age. While they were far from reaching Sunflare, there were high hopes for them to do so.

How many among martial masters could break through to Dominator of Thousands? The gap between the two systems was too great!

If Liu Yan had advanced twenty years ago, she would have set a public banquet and invited everyone to feast! But in this day and age, rising another level in martial dao without entering the supernatural system meant that her chances of crossing over were greatly diminished!

The joyous atmosphere immediately turned downcast. Liu Yan could sense it too, but she didn’t mind as much as she would’ve before.

“What is this? Isn’t this worth congratulating?” she tittered. “Sunderers are very strong! I’m the second person on the team to break through! Elder Yuan’s shining example is right in front of us, I don’t despair at all! We’ll be able to go against Solars after reaching Dominator!”

Yuan Shuo’s condition brought hope to everyone. To put it in more ostentatious terms, every Silver Moon martial master felt there was hope for the future after hearing the news. A Dominator rising up against a Solar!

Martial masters were the eternal gods!

Of course, martial masters would rather join the supernatural domain if circumstances permitted. There were plenty of Sunflares in modern society and a handful of Solars. There was even news from the central region that some powerhouses had smashed the boundary to rise above Solar!

But martial masters?

Out of hundreds of millions in the vast Silver Moon, there wasn’t a single Dominator to be found among martial masters. Well, there was one now, but only one!

The supernatural was plainly much higher when it came to upper limits. Solars ranked above Sunflare and there was more to be found above Solar. As for what exactly remained unknown as there were too few familiar with it.

But martial masters?

Was there another level above Dominator? Not even martial masters knew!

Dominators were walking gods a few decades ago. Slayer of Tens, Sunderer of Hundreds, Dominator of Thousands… What came after that, one against tens of thousands? Who could battle so many?

The future was bright and unbounded for supernaturals, martial masters were the wilted flowers of yesterday.

Peak Sunderer Liu Long craved to make the crossover, as did Yuan Shuo continuously pursue the supernatural. And today, the member of the team with the most potential to become otherworldly accidentally ascended to Sunderer…

This was wonderful news as it meant the team was stronger. It was also disastrous news as Sunderers found it much more difficult to make the crossover. Although the public admired Yuan Shuo now, there were also those waiting to see the professor be made a fool of. It would be even harder for Yuan Shuo to become supernatural after making it to Dominator. The supernatural domain continuously pushed its limits while martial dao already bumped up against its borders!

Yuan Shuo was strong enough now, yet existences beyond Solar had appeared in the central region. That placed them two levels greater than Yuan Shuo. As strong as martial masters were, could they defy powerhouses beyond Solar?

Another key point was that martial masters required ten, twenty, or even thirty years to take one step forward. It’d only been twenty years since the supernatural appeared and there were already existences beyond Solar! They continued to improve and grow stronger every year, a fact that martial dao could not compare to!

“What’s with all of you?” Liu Yan laughed happily. “I broke through! I’m a Sunderer! If I make the crossover at this level, I might vault straight into Sunflare! This is great news, why all the long faces?”

“Congratulations!” Li Hao was the first to react and smiled broadly. “You’re a Sunderer from now on, sis! We have less to worry about. My teacher says that Dominator may not be the limit of martial dao. While progress is fast with the supernatural, that doesn’t mean there are no drawbacks.

“All of you know better than I do that advancement is slow with martial masters,” Li Hao continued after seeing that he had everyone’s attention. “But internal force travels from inside to out. It’s energy produced by the body with no obvious disadvantages. And the supernatural?

“Their energy travels from outside in. Supernaturals are in grave danger when they enter an area without mysterious power. They also suffer from a lot of disadvantages. Fire supernaturals, for example, are noticeably suppressed on rainy days. Martial masters can acclimate to all sorts of environments…”

“We know all this,” Yun Yao interrupted gently. “But you need to know that only one Dominator has appeared among all Silver Moon martial masters in the last twenty years! That august personage is your teacher, Yuan Shuo! I’m not judging who’s stronger or has more advantages, just that in terms of powerhouses, there have been at least fifty Sunflares in Silver Moon over the last twenty years.

“And those are only the known ones. There’s bound to be more in the shadows, hidden among supernatural organizations or even Night Watchers!” she concluded with resignation. “Everyone knows that there are drawbacks with the supernatural, but it swiftly improves and develops every year. It’s overcome some of its initial issues by now, yet curtains fall on martial masters by the day. Professor Yuan is now foremost among Silver Moon martial masters!”

Could this number one rival Solars? He’d killed one of them, yes—could he kill a second?

Many guessed that Yuan Shuo killed Brokensky because the supernatural hadn’t anticipated his opponent had broken through. It led to severe injuries with the first blow and his subsequent death. The professor might not prevail against a Solar opponent in direct combat.

“Sis Yun.” Li Hao grinned. “Although martial masters might have a more modest upper limit, we may be able to swiftly cross over to Sunflare as a Sunderer. Isn’t that also a good thing? Our team is stronger after gaining a Sunderer, it’s definitely worth celebrating!”

He offered some encouragement after seeing that everyone remained down in the dumps. Liu Yan herself might not feel as open-minded and happy about her breakthrough, but Li Hao really didn’t think it made a difference.

“That’s true!” Chen Jian laughed straightforwardly. “Sunderers are also a force to be reckoned with! Chief is a Sunderer—look at how much stronger he is than those Night Watchers! This makes for two Sunderers in our six person team. Silver City’s not that big, so as long as we don’t suffer another supernatural attack of the same scale, we’ll be able to handle it if a few Darkmoons come under normal circumstances.”

“That’s right, that’s right!” Wu Chao shoved his moroseness downward and smiled in ghastly fashion. “Congratulations, Vice Captain Liu! You’re really something to be the second Sunderer of our team!”

Liu Long entered at this time. He looked at the group, then at Liu Yan.

“Everyone knows about Liu Yan breaking through?” he asked calmly.

“Yep!” The team nodded. Patently, the chief knew before they did.

“This is good! Increases in strength are good at a critical time like this. As for this making progress hard… Don’t we have the greatest martial master of Silver Moon? We might learn something new if we ask him for guidance! Sunderers soar to the heaven with one move if they set foot into the supernatural. They directly enter the ranks of Sunflare! Not even our province has many Sunflares, you’ll be envious then!”

That was all he said on the topic. He might say more if Liu Yan could make the crossover, but modern knowledge was that the stronger the martial master was, the further it shoved them away from the supernatural. This development wasn’t necessarily the best.

“Enough about that, let’s talk about more good news!” Liu Long flashed a smile. “Director Hao sought me out this morning! He’s agreed in principle to establish a Night Watcher branch. Once it’s formalized, we’ll be a branch in much more than just name.”

He looked at Li Hao, surmising that the young man might be the only person who didn’t understand. “Establishing a branch means that we’ll be sent some supernaturals and resources that they need, including mysterious power! If the branch failed to come through, all we’d get are massive raises from the Inspectorate. But what good are wages to us apart from food, sleep, and clothes?”

They didn’t need money! There wasn’t much use for it as money couldn’t buy mysterious power. Those who traded mysterious power on the black markets needed money for other purposes, such as resources for the organization, food, lodgings, etc.

Public coin paid for all of this when it came to the Demon Hunters, so they didn’t understand the purpose of money. Once a branch was established, their wages would change to mysterious power instead of fiat. Other than a steady source of resources, those upstairs would also send a few supernaturals to enhance the city’s defense.

Establishing a Night Watcher branch also indicated that the government had temporarily set aside the idea of migrating Silver City.

There were so many benefits!

“Director Hao came to me and mentioned his thoughts to indicate that he approves of this plan,” Liu Long chuckled. “This is good! He has a high status among the Night Watchers—he’s second to only Director Xie! This means that the likelihood of this proposal going through is greatly increased!”