Star Gate

Chapter 224: Entering the Ruins (II)

The Veteris Institute of Silver City was established for the ancients and Yuan Shuo had originally taught there.

It was said that the dynasty was able to conquer the world thanks to the ancient civilization. The imperial family had possibly excavated a massive ruin back in the day and obtained a large sum of sophisticated items from the rubble. City-level annihilation weapons might have also come from there.

These discoveries made the unification of the lands possible. Otherwise, with the level of development of society in the past, conquering a province meant nothing as one might lose it in another few days. The key thing was, the liege lord might not even know that he’d lost part of his territory.

Not only did the supernaturals gasp with awe, so did Li Hao sigh with appreciation. There was another land behind the cliff face! Did this mean that Rift Canyon had existed since the ancient times? The entrance shouldn’t be in the cliff face otherwise. If it’d existed for so long, then the city truly had been buried, right? It couldn’t have been constructed underground to begin with, right?

If it had, the ancients were truly remarkable!

Undulations speed across the cliff face like water ripples as it slowly returned to calm. Hou Xiaochen glanced at it and spoke again, “You can enter now. The entrance will be accessible for half an hour. You can go in together or go in one by one. After it closes, the earliest it can be opened again is midnight tonight. It can be opened at midnight for the next three days, but after that, you’ll have to wait a month. However, if you have to wait a month... you likely won’t make it out alive!”

The assembly jerked with shock.

“Has someone among the Night Watchers lived inside for a month before?” The Revolution King frowned.

“No.” Hou Xiaochen shook his head. “There’s enormous danger inside. It’s already a great feat to make it out alive within the first three days, to say nothing of a month. We explored only the outer city before—the city beneath us is divided into the inner and outer city. There’s nothing valuable in the outer city, it’s all held in the inner city.

“Therefore, we hope that everyone works together on this joint expedition and makes it to the inner city!” The man smiled. “That will be all for now. You know better than me if you’re familiar with what I speak of. It’s not like you haven’t sent people inside before. What’s the point in asking all these questions?”

Would the great organizations enter without any sort of preparation beforehand?

Absolutely not!

There were plenty of Night Watchers in the agency and not all of them were loyal. There were double agents among them who’d long shared intelligence of the explorations.

No one among the crowd said anything, while Hong Yitang explained, “I really don’t know much. Please don’t misunderstand, Director Hou.”

The director smiled without a word. Is that so? It is if you say so.

As the water ripples stilled, the various organizations stared fixedly at the entrance. Do they go together or separately? Was there danger inside? They turned their gazes to the eager members of the small organizations.

“You go in first!” Violet Moon suddenly commanded coolly.

The small organizations hesitated at the directive. Some were apprehensive while others were excited. They knew that they were being used as scouts. At the same time, they were already here. Were they afraid of anything? Those still on the scene were either unafraid of death or hoping to strike it rich. It might be more dangerous to be the first inside, but it also meant they may have greater gains. Although the Night Watchers had already conducted a few explorations, that didn’t mean anything.

A couple of figures shot forward without requiring a second exhortation from Violet Moon. They smashed into the rippling cliff wall and vanished like a drop of water into a liquid surface. The figures vanished from sight.

Some powerhouses among the crowd utilized special powers to scan the stone surface with shining eyes, but they quickly frowned. They couldn’t see anything. Just as their intelligence reports told them, one lost contact with the outside world after entering the ruins. Only a wall separated them, but they were unable to probe what was happening inside.

After precedent was set, the remaining heavyweights of the small organizations threw caution to the wind.

“Let’s go in!” one of them grunted. “We’re here because we want to take a gamble. There’s nothing to hesitate about!”

Another group of people rushed at the cliff face. It might be safer to head in earlier. If they were one of the last ones in, they would have to be on their guard against ambush from the larger organizations. Now that was true danger.

Forty members of the small organizations had all gone inside in the blink of an eye. The Night Watchers were in no hurry.

“Let’s make good use of time!” Hou Xiaochen remarked upon seeing that the assembly wasn’t at ease. “How about this, the Sword Sect first, then Celestial, the Night Watchers, Red Moon, and Yama.”

The Revolution King turned to him with a frown. Why were they last?

“It doesn’t matter what the order is, so long as we’re in the middle,” Hou Xiaochen chuckled. “This is to prevent you guys from allying together and quickly taking us out if you enter first. This is also out of interest for peace.”

“Celestial goes last,” amended the Revolution King. “Half Mountain isn’t here, so they have no voice at the table!”

It was fine for the Sword Sect to enter first. They could be the first line of defense against danger, and they weren’t competent enough to do anything if all was safe.

Hong Yitang didn’t mind. He gave way to the arrangement with a smile. “Then we’ll be off. Everyone, see you inside!”

He was the first to enter the cliff face, followed swiftly by his sect members and daughter. As for danger... if Hong Yitang died inside, there wouldn’t be a good ending in store for his daughter. These veteran martial masters held quite a clear understanding of the world. It was better to keep his daughter by his side so that she wouldn’t become a hostage in another’s hands.

The Revolution King acted decisively after the Sword Sect entered; he quickly walked in with his Yama members. Off to the side, Celestial didn’t protest their positioning. These people in cloaks kept a startlingly low profile.

It was the Night Watchers after Yama’s people. Liu Long grabbed Li Hao with one hand and Liu Yan with the other.

“Stay with me, be careful of getting separated!” he muttered. There was no need to look after Wang Ming—the young supernatural knew plenty of people here.

Li Hao didn’t say anything, he looked around with a bit of bafflement. Where was Panther? Had someone killed it and made it into dog stew? Surely not!

The dog was very smart. Did its absence mean that it was unwilling to enter the ruins? He was about to go in!

That was just as well if it didn’t want to. The situation was bound to be dangerous inside, it was just that the outside may not be safe either. Numerous powerhouses might arrive after they left—maybe they would itch for a taste of dog spirit meat when they saw Panth?

Li Hao wasn’t able to continue dwelling on this matter, so he set it aside.

Hu Dingfang was the first to enter on the Night Watcher side, Hao Lianchuan would bring up the rear. There were a few in line ahead of Li Hao’s trio. When they were all inside, the three rushed the cliff face.

After them, Red Moon and Celestial entered the ruins. There were only a few Night Watchers and a scattering of members from other organizations left outside before long. Not all of Red Moon went inside; some Darkmoons remained on the outskirts. It wouldn’t be a loss if they died. If no one touched these Darkmoons, they could wait for reinforcements to arrive. Various heavyweights were rushing to Silver Moon on account of Yuan Shuo’s matter. they just needed a bit of time to make the trip.

Those who stayed behind swiftly vanished. Each of them were highly on edge as they were deathly afraid Hou Xiaochen would kill them.

The Night Watcher director, however, didn’t deign to look at them. It was pointless to kill them. He simply watched the stone wall gradually return to a cliff face. A black dog appeared at the last possible second and rammed itself at the wall.

Manager Yu was about to stop the animal when Hou Xiaochen shook his head.

“Let it go inside,” he chuckled. “I hear that it’s Yuan Shuo’s dog.”

“Yuan Shuo...” The manager looked around with furrowed brows. “Is he still nearby?”

Being a martial master, it was easy for Yuan Shuo to hide himself if he wished to.

“It’s hard to say. Whatever Yuan Shuo does is normal. Who knows where he’s holing up to recover, or perhaps he’s not in hiding at all,” Hou Xiaochen continued chuckling. “Let’s go, the entrance has been sealed off. Let’s come back for a look tomorrow night. I wonder if anyone will rush here today. Our neighbors might arrive if they’re fast enough—I don’t think we’ll see anyone from the central region yet.”

The central region was so far away that some more time was needed. However, there were other provinces near Silver Moon. The various larger organizations might redeploy their powerhouses on an ad hoc basis, more neighboring Night Watchers might present themselves. Who knew?

Manager Yu helped him back to camp. “Will battle break out as soon as they’re all inside?” she asked softly.

“It shouldn’t, they’ll want to get a handle on the situation first. They’re all supernaturals—while impulsive, they’re not idiots. If they start killing as soon as they’re inside, who knows if anyone will make it out alive?”

......

At the same time, above the cliffs of Rift Canyon.

A figure appeared with a soft cough, its complexion pale. It looked at Hou Xiaochen in the distance and at the newly sealed off cliff face. A faint smile spread across its face.

“It’s up to you now!” The figure looked to the horizon. There would be powerhouses here soon. It walked away from the scene and was soon greeted by a person stepping out from a boulder.

Yuan Shuo coughed and looked at the newcomer with surprise. “What are you doing here?”

“Master!” The newcomer appeared very young and delicate, but wore a sturdy combat outfit and a braided ponytail. She half grumbled, “I came with Dingfang last night, but I dropped out of the helicopter first. I knew you would still be here!”

“Hmm?” Yuan Shuo frowned.

“Junior brother is here, would you leave ahead of time without watching him enter the ruins or seeing if Hou Xiaochen handed him over?” Chen Yuhua complained. “You’re deeply injured, but you’re still lingering in these surroundings. I knew that you’d relax only after personally seeing junior brother enter the ruins. As I thought, I found you here!”

“What are you doing, waiting for me?” Yuan Shuo frowned and left with large strides.

“Master, are your injuries bad?” Chen Yuhua quickly caught up to the professor. “Everyone’s looking for you, come back to White Moon City with me. The army barracks are the safest. No matter how bold they are, they won’t dare attack the army! The Tiger Wings’ campsite is perfect for you to rest and recover in...”

“Piss off!” Yuan Shuo snapped impatiently.

“Master!” Chen Yuhua protested in hurt tones.

“Who’s your master?” Yuan Shuo denounced cold as he talked. “When I accepted you, I wanted to have you inherit my legacy. You’re my final disciple on the path of martial dao, Li Hao was meant to be the heir to my knowledge! The Five Styles, the Breathing Method of the Five Styles! Which one didn’t I pass on to you? My thoughts were that you’d strengthen my Five Styles discipline if you could cross over to Dominator.

“But you decided to go to White Moon City. I don’t care if you decided to join the army or Night Watchers, but you taught my breathing method to Hu Dingfang!” Yuan Shuo snarled with fury. “I would’ve slapped you to death with one palm strike if this had been twenty years ago! This is a betrayal of your master! Would Hu Dingfang have his accomplishments of today with that potential? You good-for-nothing!”