Star Gate

Chapter 189: The Martial World of Silver Moon (II)

“Your bloodlust is too strong... Get outta here!”

Li Hao rose and left. Yuan Shuo watched him go with a smile. A moment later, he exhaled softly. Spirits of the five viscera, the fire heart ape... From today forth, I will raise this ape! People say that I am an evil monkey spirit. Very good! I’ll show you a true evil simian when my fire heart ape takes shape!

Sun Yifei? Late Solar? You want revenge on me, don’t you? Bring it! I beat you into jumping off the bridge in Rift Canyon all those years ago and we meet on the same battlefield this time. Don’t you think you’re something after throwing yourself under Ying Hongyue’s banner—he’s also someone who knelt at my feet all the same!

......

At the same time.

The border of Silver Moon province.

A person walked across the land. Tall, limber, and in his forties at most, he bore a long qimei staff on his back. Though his hair was graying, the look in his eyes was uncommonly sharp. He didn’t appear that old apart from unkempt hair that flowed past his shoulders. Several youngsters followed behind him.

“Master, we’ve finally made it to Silver Moon province!” One of them exclaimed with joy when they saw the territory marker. They were finally here!

Up ahead, the Qimei Staff King also glanced at the stele erected in the ground. His lips curved in a smile tinged with melancholy. Twenty years! It’d been twenty years since he left, twenty long years since he last set foot in his homeland.

After he lost to Old Demon Yuan, the demon was trapped in Silver Moon for these twenty years. Sun Yifei had thought the old man would die a Sunderer, but to think the old guy would reach into Dominator and slay a Solar!

That was just as well! Bullying the weak was beneath him; revenge was more his pursuit. But neither was killing a Sunderer on his deathbed worthy of his attention.

Ying Hongyue wished to kill Yuan Shuo not just for revenge. He also nursed other motives such as interrogating the old man for the contents of certain ancient tomes, locations of ancient ruins, and the Breathing Method of the Five Styles. Sun Yifei, however, didn’t care about any of that. He was back for one reason only—to kill Yuan Shuo and tell the old man that Sun Yifei was back!

Not only that, but he’d brought some of his most prized disciples as he’d heard that Yuan Shuo had been moved to take action for his final disciple Li Hao. Red Moon was also apparently after the young man.

It didn’t matter! He brought his disciples with him so they could kill Yuan Shuo’s disciple. They were all martial masters, not supernaturals. He’d raised them over the past twenty years to inherit his martial legacy!

It might not be fair if he easily killed Yuan Shuo. He wanted his disciples to kill Li Hao so as to prove that the Qimei Staff was greater than the Five Styles.

His disciples were respectively peak Slayer, peak Sunderer, and half step Dominator. He didn’t know what level Yuan Shuo’s disciple was. Li Hao might be very weak, but the weakest of his disciples was a peak Slayer. Thus, Sun Yifei brought his weakest disciple on this trip. If Li Hao couldn’t fight even his weakest disciple, then he couldn’t be blamed for bullying others with superior force.

“Master, are we going directly to Rift Canyon or to Silver City?” asked the half step Dominator in the rear. “With master’s strength, I don’t think there’s anyone in Silver Moon who can stop you. If going to the canyon takes too much time, why don’t we head straight to Silver City, kill Yuan Shuo, execute his disciple, and end the Five Styles legacy!”

“Don’t think too lightly of Silver Moon!” Sun Yifei looked back at his disciple. “Even our leader suffered a defeat when he once visited the province.”

“Yes, this disciple understands! I heard that it was the leader of the Silver Moon Night Watchers—Hou Xiaochen—who took a stand. But it was because reinforcements came from the central region that our leader was forced to leave. Hou Xiaochen simply benefited from internal reinforcements...”

“It’s not that simple!” Sun Yifei flicked a sideways glance at him. “Our leader was already present when Hou Xiaochen made his move. Why didn’t our leader stop him? Was it only because Hou Xiaochen possessed a high status that our leader waited for him to finish killing so they could fight alone?”

Youngsters always thought too simply. Sun Yifei valued these martial disciples more than he did his supernatural disciples. He... didn’t actually like the supernatural that much, even though he was one himself now. Learning and inheritance weren’t too important in the supernatural world. Other than a few supernatural techniques, there wasn’t much knowledge to speak of. It was just absorbing energy, breaking locks, and learning some techniques.

It was a marked difference from the path of martial masters. The master and disciple relationship in martial dao made it easier to foster bonds of kinship and pass on experience, battle methods, techniques and others. So while he had a few supernatural disciples who were already Sunflare, he didn’t really care about them.

Sun Yifei wasn’t meant to reach Dominator back in his day. After he was defeated as a half step Dominator and his aura damaged, he had no choice but to cross over to delay his decline. He would never return to the path of martial dao. Therefore, he hoped that one of his disciples would be able to advance to Dominator.

His eldest disciple who’d spoken, for instance, already grasped a rudimentary aura. There was hope for him to rise to Dominator, so Sun Yifei held high expectations for him.

“Moxian, do not think little of Silver Moon!” Sun Yifei truly valued his eldest disciple, so he made this an earnest teaching moment. “Located on the borderlands since the ancient times, Silver Moon’s martial culture thrives and prospers! Her martial masters were renowned throughout the land twenty years ago, before the supernatural appeared!

“Martial masters from Silver Moon dominated the ninety-nine provinces of the world. After the Skystar Dynasty united the world, they had to order a temporary ban on martial activity due to unrest among Silver Moon martial masters!

“Though it was the end times for Silver Moon’s martial world twenty years ago, they still produced numerous powerhouses—including old demons like Yuan Shuo. While he wasn’t a Dominator, he killed many Heaven Favored in the initial days of the supernatural rise and made his name known throughout the lands!

“Silver Moon’s martial world is built with deep foundations. Who knows what nook and cranny might hold a Dominator?” Sun Yifei waxed eloquent. “There aren’t many clashes between supernaturals and martial masters these days. Some of the older martial masters have either retired to their mountain abodes or bide their time, waiting for the right moment. Some have even completely changed themselves to become leaders of supernatural organizations.

“Of the three great organizations, the leader of Red Moon comes from Silver Moon. Additionally, the leaders of Celestial and Yama are both related to the province to a certain degree. There are many powerhouses in the titanic central region of your eyes, but what of it?”

Sun Yifei still spoke highly of his homeland, despite his enemy residing here. Powerhouses yet remained in Silver Moon. Many walked out of the province’s martial world. Ying Hongyue, for instance, was a representative figure of their time despite being at odds with the government. He came from Silver Moon. So while the province gradually declined in the supernatural world, the name of Silver Moon was still well known in Skystar Dynasty.

And despite its continuous downturn, the dynasty that’d conquered the world was not yet fully toppled. Who knew if Ying Hongyue could lead his organization into carving out territory for himself?

“This disciple understands!” Sun Moxian bobbed his head. Next to him stood a young woman wearing a long staff on her back. Her hair was tied in a neat updo, presenting an exceedingly competent demeanor.

“Master,” she asked. “I have heard of the might of Silver Moon’s martial world. But no Dominators have come from it in recent years. It’s the central region that has produced quite a few, and many are active on supernatural battlefields. There are even rumors of Dominators looking to advance beyond Dominator, so why has martial dao declined so rapidly?”

She often heard of the magnificence of Silver Moon’s martial world. Not only did her master speak of it, but so did martial masters of the older generation. But based on what she knew, no Dominators had come from Silver Moon in many years. A rare sight of them could be glimpsed in the central region. She and her master had visited several of them; none of them hailed from Silver Moon.

“Silver Moon’s decline...” Sun Yifei shook his head with resignation. “Its martial world has not truly withered. If we must be frank, it has to do with us. We accelerated its downfall. Many of Silver Moon’s martial masters carried the hope of ascending to Dominator back in the day—many, not just one or two!

“Those times were denoted as Silver Moon’s last frenzy! Whether it was me, our leader, or that Yuan Shuo... we all fought with extreme viciousness and killed many half step Dominators. Among our opponents were the Seven Swords of Silver Moon, the Three Spears, Fists of North and South, Blade Kings of the Cardinal Direction, Thunder Legs, Worldcarver, Iron Shirt...” The powerhouses that Sun Yifei listed were almost all half step Dominator. Even the ones who weren’t were practically there.

There were a lot of people!

It had been a resplendent era, the final era of madness before the rise of the supernatural. Silver Moon’s martial world had been on the cusp of its ascendency, yet...

Sun Yifei sighed emotionally. “Out of the Seven Swords, three died to Yuan Shuo. Two of the Blade Kings did as well and he pierced through Iron Shirt with his Five Styles. That old thing took out half of the martial world by himself! The rest were dispatched by me, our leader, and a few others...” he chuckled.

And so, Silver Moon’s martial world declined!

Jaws dropped among the baffled disciples. So Silver Moon’s martial world had been ended by its own people!

“Then... why did Yuan Shuo never reach Dominator?”

“His ambitions were too great!” Sun Yifei responded coldly. “The guy practices the Five Styles and trains in the auras of the five animals. Most martial masters have focused on one aura since the start of time, but that wasn’t for him! He wanted five auras and to combine them all! “Therefore, I’m not surprised at all that he can kill a Solar after becoming a Dominator. Either he never breaks through, or he is a premier Dominator once he does. Just melding five auras into one makes it completely reasonable that he can cut down Solars!”

He valued Yuan Shuo highly. Or rather, everyone placed great emphasis on every martial master from Silver Moon back in the day. This was a guy who slayed half of the province’s martial world, one who combined the auras of five animals!

Even the lofty Ying Hongyue would be slapping his own face if he said that Yuan Shuo was trash because he didn’t set foot into Dominator. Which other Sunderer could meld five auras together?

Hou Xiaochen protected Yuan Shuo not only because the man could explore ruins, but also because he held the faintest sliver of a hope that the professor could rise to Dominator, that the final hope of the province’s martial world would remain alive.

“The five auras of the Five Styles...” Sun Moxian was left speechless. “Did he really do it? I can’t do two, much less five!”

He finally began to understand why his master placed much importance on this man. This kind of character was not to be underestimated, even though he’d only just set foot into Dominator. Being a half step Dominator himself, he fully understood how hard it was to advance with one aura.

But five??