Star Gate

Chapter 185: Opening Supernatural Locks (I)

Yuan Shuo didn’t say anything upon hearing Li Hao’s thoughts and arrangements. He simply offered, “Don’t think of Wang Ming as a fool. He’s not stupid. The metal mysterious power that you extract... If I’m to compare it to other metal attributed mysterious power, I would actually call yours metal elemental power.

“The elemental power that you distill is pure and of a single element. Any supernatural that’s absorbed energy before will instantly detect its difference. Setting aside the fact whether or not he’ll know that’s elemental power, you’ll be in big trouble once he opens his mouth.”

There were already too many who knew about the sword energy. If word got out that Li Hao could extract elemental power, that would be even more trouble.

Li Hao sat down cross-legged on the floor and nodded as he listened. He’d thought about all of this already.

“I understand, but I also know that when there are too many debts, one stops worrying about them. Red Moon knows a lot, Yama might know some about me, and the Night Watchers have possibly guessed another portion. In that case, does it matter if people know a little more?”

The young man flashed a smile. “There’s two possible outcomes in this scenario. First, Wang Ming will be so grateful that he will keep my secret and help me here and there in the future. Second, he harbors other motivations and tells others, whereupon I gain another enemy.”

Did he care about one more enemy?

Not anymore.

After weighing up the pros and cons, this was simply the conclusion he came to. His impression of Wang Ming during this period of contact was that, aside from a tendency to run his mouth, the young man was decent enough. He did seem to be able to keep secrets as he’d never spoken of the tenth person that Li Hao told him about. The precursor was that he needed to be reminded ahead of time.

Yuan Shuo nodded. He normally didn’t interfere in his student’s decisions if they were backed up by proper thought. He would only clearly explain the advantages and disadvantages.

“Then it’s up to you, but be prepared for the consequences!” That was all he would say on the topic. One walked one’s path alone. Even if there were bumps and obstacles along the way, it would be a good thing if one learned that the human heart was to be feared.

......

Wang Ming was the first to arrive after teacher and student waited for a while. The handsome supernatural beamed widely when he saw Yuan Shuo. “Teacher!”

An honorary disciple was still a disciple at the end of the day. The handsome young man also wanted to curry some favor, given how strong Yuan Shuo was. Unfortunately, the professor gave them a very imposing and dignified impression. Other than Li Hao, the others were a little too timid to approach Yuan Shuo.

The professor sized up the supernatural. “My original plans were not to interfere too much,” he said calmly. “You’re just an honorary disciple and you should be well aware of why I accepted you. However, your little senior brother insists that I use a secret art to help you break through. Helping you is a small thing, but when word spreads of your abnormal rate of improvement... Do you know what it means to the supernatural world if you can easily advance?”

“I understand, teacher,” Wang Ming responded solemnly. “So I’m very thankful to Li Hao...”

“He is your senior brother!”

Wang Ming fell awkwardly silent. That honorific was too hard for him to voice!

Yuan Shuo dropped the topic. “I only have one request, button your lips! If you succeed and others ask you...”

He thought for a moment. How should Wang Ming reply when asked how he’d ascended so quickly? Because of the blood pearl?

No way! He wasn’t the first to utilize the treasure.

“Say it’s because you know the Breathing Method of the Five Styles! The combination of breathing method and blood pearl results in exceptional results at critical moments. It makes it easier to smash through bottlenecks!”

The Breathing Method of the Five Styles!

Li Hao wanted to speak up, but Yuan Shuo swept him a severe glare. It was the breathing method if he said so!

The outside world knew that Yuan Shuo possessed an exclusive breathing method that was useful for supernaturals. The Energy Induction Method that the Night Watchers used contained hints of his involvement. The Five Styles version was almost never taught to outsiders, which was why Brokensky had been tempted by the breathing method.

If it was further known that the Breathing Method of the Five Styles was useful for bottlenecks, it would elicit even more attention and entice more powerhouses to try and seize it.

“The Breathing Method of the Five Styles is not taught to outsiders!” Yuan Shuo asserted. “If anyone asks you, tell them that you learned a simplified version. The main crux was that I operated the breathing method for you so you could absorb the blood pearl!”

Various thoughts ran through Wang Ming’s mind. “Teacher... this...” he said softly. Will this bring trouble? “Why don’t I just say that I have good potential...”

“Bullshit!” Yuan Shuo cursed. “You’d be a Heaven Favored if your potential was that good! You can say that to regular people, but if those like Hou Xiaochen ask you, respond with my explanation.”

“Understood!” Wang Ming hastily nodded.

“Go inside!” Yuan Shuo pointed at the training room. “Clear your mind after you head in and don’t think about anything. Start training when you sense energy entering the room and ignore everything else!”

“Understood!” Wang Ming quickly entered the room without daring to say anything else.

Yuan Shuo closed the door with a wave of his hand and looked at his student. “Send it through the air. It’s fine if you waste some or part of it dissipates. He won’t be able to say much if he does tell others, which will avoid certain trouble.”

It wasn’t unfeasible to send energy through the air, but some dissipation and waste would be unavoidable.

Li Hao thought for a bit before nodding. He didn’t say anything as he knew this was his teacher’s greatest effort in protecting him. They sat down in front of the training room. Yuan Shuo took out a storage box; it was filled with metal attributed mysterious power.

The professor had traded part of his previous gains for one thousand cubes of the five elements and given them to Li Hao. The young man had absorbed roughly five hundred, leaving five hundred untouched and some unattributed mysterious power. Of those, there were one hundred cubes of metal. That should be enough.

A Darkmoon would never be able to absorb one hundred cubes in one go under normal circumstances. Sunflares would be hard pressed to achieve the task, but Solars wouldn’t have a problem.

Li Hao grasped at the air without another word; metal attributed mysterious power surged into his hand while faint sword energy shimmered over the little sword. Although they’d absorbed a great deal of energy at the entrance to the Qiao ruins, their consumption had also been significant as of late and energy from the sword didn’t seem as rich as before.

Sword energy melded into metal energy and began bifurcating it. A ball of golden energy was swiftly stripped out—it was pure gold!

The energy surged toward the lungs, the organ that corresponded to the metal element. Instead of absorbing it, Li Hao quickly circulated his internal force and shoved it out of his body, sending it through the air into the training room.

......

Inside the room.

Wang Ming paced back and forth. There didn’t seem to be anyone else entering the room—was energy somehow supposed to appear for him to use? He didn’t understand the process, but all he could do now was wait.

A ball of golden energy suddenly appeared in his field of vision as he grappled with his thoughts. Indeed, he could sense its existence. As he wondered what this was and if it was dangerous or not, the ball of energy enveloped him without forewarning!

Wang Ming’s pupils oscillated violently! What??

The golden energy swiftly flooded his body and assimilated with his own mysterious power in the blink of an eye. It catalyzed a reaction with a loud rumble; all of the mysterious power in his body trembled with forceful ripples. Everything felt like it was going to explode!

His mysterious power agitated furiously and surged in all directions, roiling toward his supernatural locks.

Supernatural cultivation centered on breaking supernatural locks. The first lock opened differed from person to person. Take Wang Ming, for instance. He first opened a lock around his lungs. He hadn’t truly understood the action, but became a metal supernatural after that. His second lock was the one of his right arm.

Based on the nine locks that were known to current supernatural knowledge, there seemed to be five locks around each of the five viscera organs [1], four around each of the limbs, and apparently one around the head. No one had discovered that one yet, it was just speculation that there should be a tenth lock around the head.

Golden energy surged into the handsome young man’s body, thundering toward his lungs with a large amount of mysterious power. The young supernatural jumped with shock—the five organs were very fragile even for supernaturals. He didn’t dare let this energy flood his lungs!

Thus, he forcefully operated the Energy Induction Method. It was also a way of directing mysterious power—he sent it toward his left arm. Out of the five locks he’d discovered, the first was around his lungs, then his arms, and finally his legs. Wang Ming was yet to sense the locks around his other organs.

This time, he planned to send this massive surge of energy against the lock in his left arm.

BAM!

A muffled collision rang from his body—both Li Hao and Yuan Shuo heard it. It rumbled like the energy was ramming something!

Yuan Shuo’s lips vibrated outside the door. “He’s attacking the supernatural lock! Supernatural cultivation is much simpler than ours, even Sunflares don’t need to comprehend the aura. They ascend when they open their locks!”

Li Hao nodded and continued extracting metal elemental energy to send it inside the house. Waves of golden energy undulated into the room while Wang Ming cried out with pain. The mysterious power was less painful than he expected, but the process of opening a lock was heart wrenching all the same.

This was already quite good for the handsome young man. Not only had his previous processes of opening the lock been incredibly painful, the impact of mysterious power rampaging through his body was also extremely agonizing.

Half of the anguish was absent from the equation this time! His eyes widened with excitement, not knowing how Li Hao and Yuan Shuo managed the deed. Too many experienced a mental breakdown during this process because they could not endure the pain. This was a frequent sight. Right now, his hopes of breaking through seemed immensely higher!

A small chain appeared over his left arm, it was tangible! There was a saying in the supernatural world that these locks were chains restricting the potential of the human body. Breaking them freed the potential, which was why the supernatural grew stronger.

However, Yuan Shuo said last time that these locks were possibly protection instead. Wang Ming could not give consideration to this in his current straits. He would ascend first before thinking of anything else.

1. The organs in the main cavity of the body. ?