Star Gate

Chapter 231: Three’s Company (III)

A wild gust of wind swept through the air, sweeping up the tirelessly fighting Bronze Armor. The wind then transformed into chains that locked the soldier into the air! However, the soldier was not attacked while held in the sky. Plainly, the airborne attacks did not target the soldiers.

Bronze Armor continued to struggle, but it was futile. The Revolution King was a peak Solar and carried an origin weapon. He stood at the pinnacle of Silver Moon. A mere centurion in bronze armor would not defy him!

Cut off from its source of energy when separated from the ground, Bronze Armor’s struggles began to weaken. Just when the Revolution King felt that the target was in hand, light erupted from the soldier and it exploded into pieces!

“What?!” gasped the Revolution King. It’d exploded? Self detonation? How was that possible??

In his view, these soldiers simply followed gut instincts from the ancient times. They were long dead and their intelligence scattered with life. It was some final commands that compelled them to follow standing orders and kill trespassers.

How would one self-detonate after being captured and severed from its source of power? And how could such resilient armor break like that?? What was the reason behind all this?

Unless... it wasn’t the soldier that’d initiated the self-detonation, but the armor itself that was equipped with special abilities. For instance, it would trigger a self-destruction sequence if it continuously failed to find a source of energy.

The Revolution King cast a quick glance at the Black Armors. He heaved a sigh of relief to see that they were fine.

“The bronze armor is likely higher level equipment,” he postulated. “The city lord might not have wanted it to end up in the hands of others and programmed it to self-detonate if it lost its source of energy. The black armor was possibly just standard issue, so it was not programmed in the same way.”

He bore a keen eye and quickly determined the reason for the destruction. Now this was a bit of a pity. This meant they could only bring back the sets of black armor. Who knew if they could cancel that command for the bronze armor? It might take venturing into the inner city to do so.

“Milord,” asked the metal supernatural Yao Cheng. “The Night Watchers have explored this area many times, so might they own a few sets of black armor? They might have been unwilling to reveal that possession before.”

Did the Night Watchers have any? They couldn’t possibly have left empty-handed every time they explored. Perhaps they had some, and maybe they’d already raised an army of martial masters in the dark. If that was the case... they’d hidden this trump card well!

This was the other organizations’ first time in. If they retreated now, they could leave with almost one hundred sets of black armor when the door opened tonight. While the Night Watchers weren’t too strong, they weren’t weaklings either. If they came again and again, even just once a month, that made for thirty-six visits in the three years since they’d discovered these ruins.

While such gains may not be on the table each time, they could have more than one thousand sets in storage if they weren’t too greedy.

Hearts pounded with alarm at the possibility. Was this the case? If so, the Night Watchers had hidden themselves deeply! Even without sufficient numbers of martial masters to suit up in armor, three years was enough to raise a new crop of martial masters.

“I’m not sure about the Silver Moon Night Watchers...” The Revolution King rummaged through his memories instead of immediately responding. “But the black armor reminds me of something. Apparently, there’s a troop of elite imperial guards in the central region that are heavily armored martial masters! They were active when the imperial family was still conquering the world—they stood invincible against any opponent they met. Do you think that the Skystar imperial family found a set of ruins like these back in the day?”

He suddenly turned his thoughts to the ruling imperial family. They’d risen with extreme speed and swiftly built a large army. The linchpin to their military might were elite imperial guards that could not be matched by anyone else. In that era before the supernatural rose, their martial masters were almost invincible when they put on their armor!

Could it be that this ancient city wasn’t the only one?

If that was the case, then it was a further demonstration of its importance. The explorers didn’t know how many Black Armors there were. If there were a lot, they could slowly whittle away at the soldiers and form a great army themselves.

This was a terrifying existence!

“Forget it, take these sets of armor with us and continue forward.”

“Do we still move on, milord?” someone asked softly. They’d made great gains. Wouldn’t they run into more Black Armors if they continued forward? There were a limited number of them, after all.

“Yao Cheng, take some people and probe ahead. The rest of us will await Red Moon and the others.” The Revolution King thought it over. “Although our harvest is richer if we’re the first ones in, the danger is much greater as well. A higher price needs to be paid and more will end up dying. This will damage our strength too much, so send some people out as scouts first!”

They had to wrap their heads around some information, at least.

“Remember, try not to use your supernatural abilities. Do not make a sound or cast light. You will attract attention from the Black Armors again. And finally, do not fly. That is the most dangerous action you can take!”

Yao Cheng hesitated, but quickly accepted his orders. Whether it was Black or Bronze Armors, neither could harm him. There wasn’t much danger so long as he didn’t run around haphazardly and blunder into the inner city.

He waved a hand and quickly walked to the depths of the street with eight other powerhouses. Yao Cheng was very careful in his movements and didn’t dare exude too much mysterious power, for fear of arousing a response on a greater scale.

Hong Yitang murmured a few words to his people. A few disengaged from the delegation and walked forward.

The independent supernaturals that’d survived their first engagement looked around the area. Some of them darted out again; the two great organizations did not stop them. The more people who wished to risk themselves for finding the correct route, the better. If it wasn’t for the information they’d brought back earlier, the organizations would’ve all brashly taken to the sky. Who knew how many would die with that action?

So sometimes, these wandering cultivators were still proved to be useful. It didn’t matter if they walked away with a few benefits. As rich as one person’s harvest may be, they could not compare to the big organizations. Yama had already reaped one hundred sets of black armor from the earlier fight.

Of course, the Revolution King was no fool. He quickly backed out of the plaza with his people staying behind, taking the armor with them. This zone potentially drew more attention from Black Armors if anyone set foot in it. While he wasn’t afraid, he didn’t know how many of the enemy there were. Would he lose the war of attrition if he didn’t kill them all at once?

The streets were quiet once more. However, a few new shadows could be seen shifting through the streets. The two main organizations and independent supernaturals disappeared into an alley. Spearheaded by a Solar, they were a crew of more than twenty.

......

The trio had long since shifted from their plaza location. When they returned to their original alleyway, Liu Long heaved an emotional sigh and muttered, “Solars are terrifying indeed!”

He was ever more reverential when he thought of Yuan Shuo. The professor slayed Solars while just being another Dominator. When Liu Long thought of himself, he knew there was no hope for him to battle a Bronze Armor in the same way that the Solar level Yao Cheng had.

When the chains easily caught the Bronze Armor, Liu Long realized that it’d only take a split second before he died to the same attack. The gap between them was too great!

But Yuan Shuo planned on shattering this distance! Liu Long fancied himself on the same level as the professor when he entered Dominator. The more he thought about it now, the more he was mortified. Forget it, there was just too large of a difference between them! Not to mention, Yuan Shuo was a Summoner of Spirit now.

“Let’s talk about something else for a second, chief,” Li Hao suddenly muttered. “When Yama sent out their scouts, I saw Li Dahu among them!”

As an earth supernatural, it was normal to be tasked for investigation duty. They were more effective against Black Armors if there was a chance encounter. Earth supernaturals could seal off the ground and cause the soldiers to lose their flow of energy. That left the coast clear for even an initial Sunflare like Li Dahu to eliminate the enemy.

Liu Long inclined his head, but still cautioned, “I see that Yao Cheng is with them as well...”

“Then we follow them and wait for them to split up!” Li Hao whispered. “They can’t stay together forever. They’ll certainly explore different areas so long as danger isn’t imminent. A larger group will attract more attention and whether it’s a supernatural or martial master, who doesn’t want to find treasure by themselves? An entire outer city is open to them right now, do you think they’ll be able to restrain themselves, chief? Will Yao Cheng lead all of them together the entire time?”

No way!

At least, Li Hao didn’t think so.

Liu Long’s eyes darted around as he thought rapidly. “Then let’s follow them!” He nodded.

“It’s too dangerous.” Liu Yan was the one hesitating. “Any fighting that breaks out will immediately attract Black Armors and other powerhouses... Why don’t we wait for Red Moon and the Night Watchers to come as well...”

“We can’t,” Li Hao swiftly interrupted. “There will be people everywhere then, which will make it more dangerous! All we need to do now is keep our movements more contained—they’ll think that their comrades have run into Black Armors! The soldiers are like us and don’t have supernatural ripples emanating from them...

“It’d be better if we can get three sets of armor and be imposter soldiers!” the young man said sadly, but then brightened. “You know what, why don’t we... actually go get three suits?”

They knew an effective way against the soldiers thanks to the Revolution King! One just needed to sever their connection to the ground. The only difficulty would be opening the suit of armor, but that didn’t matter. They could force their way in. His sword could absolutely create an incision, to say nothing of anything else. It was fine if they damaged the armor a little!

“It may not work...” Liu Long’s mind worked rapidly, but he followed Li Hao’s reasoning. “Real Black Armors might be able to detect something amiss with us. Otherwise, the Night Watchers could’ve done the same if they collected any and made it into the inner city uncontested.”

Li Hao nodded. There might be some identification mechanisms between the soldiers. But we’re not looking to get into the inner city! We just want to pretend to be them and kill people! We don’t need to pull the wool over the soldiers.