Star Gate

Chapter 254: An Honest and Simple Little Li Hao (II)

“Pfft!” Li Hao spat out a mouthful of blood. Liu Long wanted to move to his side when he recalled the young man’s words—ignore him unless he said anything. Thus, Liu Long also stopped a worried Liu Yan with a slight shake of his head.

Li Hao was battling the massive mountain. Suppression! Chains wrapped around the enormous peak as it shook and trembled. Everytime it quivered, the young man grew exceedingly concerned for his lock. If this continues... my supernatural lock will break!

Teacher said that suppression became much easier after he utilized his chains. Is my supernatural lock too weak for the job? He’d been too hasty, but he had no other choice. He was out of sword energy. Was he supposed to wait until that was replenished before locking his aura in place? There was no need for that!

His urgency mounted as the situation continued; failure began to loom over Li Hao. If he continued to struggle with the mountain, that would spell the end of his breakthrough attempt and possibly even damage to his organs. If he succeeded, then some injury was fine. If he failed, that was a tremendous loss.

My supernatural lock isn’t strong enough...

My lock isn’t strong enough, my foundations aren’t enough... They’re not solid enough...

Various thoughts flashed through his mind as internal force flared inside his body. Li Hao suddenly had another thought—a thought that belonged wholly to himself. It was something not even Yuan Shuo could accomplish.

Internal force flowed into the spleen and strengthened the supernatural lock—of that, everyone was well aware of. But what of the Nine Forged Force? Could that also replicate the lock with nine layers of force? Even two or three times would put the supernatural lock on even footing with the mountain.

If I strengthen the lock with internal force and layer it to increase its strength, then send it into motion, will that spontaneously suppress the mountain?

Only he and Liu Long knew the Nine Forged Force, no one else could walk in their footsteps. This was a process full of innovation and danger. What if the Nine Forged Force broke his supernatural lock instead?

Thump thump thump! echoed from Li Hao’s body. Liu Long took another look and frowned when he recognized the method. What was the lad operating the Nine Forged Force for?

Nine Forged Force... Layering of internal force... Is he sending internal force to the spleen to subdue his earth aura? Liu Long frowned and looked carefully at Li Hao. The young man’s spleen was bleeding even more heavily. Internal bleeding often threatened life itself, so what was Li Hao doing?

The Nine Forged Force was spontaneous destruction that came from layering force, shaking it, and reassembling it. What did he want to strengthen?

His aura?

Impossible!

Then... his supernatural lock so it could suppress the earth aura? Liu Long understood when he took another glance, but also sucked in a sharp breath. The kid was the epitome of a newborn calf not being afraid of a tiger! Using the Nine Forged Force to layer his supernatural lock would either break it, or create so much force that his spleen was ripped apart. The only other possibility was that he succeeded in bringing the earth aura to heel, but that was the lowest likelihood out of the three possibilities.

Liu Long’s frown deepened as he simulated everything in his mind. He spoke up when he suddenly thought of something, “Don’t be in a rush and don’t do this. No, I’m not saying to not use the Nine Forged Force. What you need to do is split your internal force into five parts and strengthen all five locks of your visceral organs at the same time! The five visceral organs are a circulatory system and one whole. The strength of one contributes to the strength of all, but when all five are strong, one is strong as well!”

Anyone else would be utterly baffled by these words, but Li Hao instantly understood. He’d gotten sidetracked! Strengthening his five supernatural locks meant that his spleen might be enhanced as well. The danger was lower and the five organs formed a circulatory system.

Liu Long was a veteran martial master at the end of the day; he emphasized stability when it came to training. Li Hao’s way of focusing on one organ wasn’t impossible, but it was much more dangerous.

The young man thought briefly and decided to listen to his elder. He wouldn’t necessarily come off any worse for the wear, but he might suffer greatly if he didn’t.

Splitting his internal force into five parts was also a test of his control over internal force. Martial masters rarely lost control over their internal force as it naturally budded within the body. Not much preparatory work needed to be done as it wasn’t an external resource. Control naturally followed when that strength appeared.

Five currents of internal force surged into the five organs, strengthening five supernatural looks. The one of the spleen suddenly trembled. Li Hao tried bringing more force to bear—it suppressed the mountain with a loud rumble. But for the barest moment, the young man sensed that the struggles against the lock were too great and his spleen suffered further damage. Not only that, but cracks began crawling through the chain.

Li Hao jolted with shock. Thank goodness he’d split his internal force into five or it might really have rammed through the lock.

BOOM!

He dismissed some of his internal force and didn’t dare layer it too many times. Just twice. The supernatural lock swiftly absorbed the force that flowed in and shook once more in the process. It clamped down more firmly over the mountain and locked one corner away!

Once... twice...

Li Hao tried again and again. While his body continuously produced internal force, he weakened at a rate visible to the naked eye. Color drained from his face as the essence within his body was consumed by his five visceral organs.

A gigantic rumble sounded after an indeterminate period of time, accompanied by the clatter of chains. A large mountain towered inside the spleen, fully immobilized by the supernatural lock. Vertigo assailed Li Hao when he opened his eyes.

“How is it?” Liu Long quickly asked.

“I just managed to lock it away...” Li Hao panted. “I consumed too much energy and depleted my internal force. My organs are damaged, but... it was worth it!”

It was very worth it!

When his supernatural lock melded with his earth aura, Li Hao discovered that the lock was now growing with the mountain. When there came a day that his earth aura could emerge from his spleen, he would be a Summoner of Spirit just like his teacher!

That was out of reach for the moment. All he could do was barely utilize the earth aura and the mountain that represented it. It would have to emerge from his spleen for him to be a true Summoner. Otherwise, he was just a Dominator beginning to spy into the secrets of Summoner of Spirit.

Even so, it was quite a feat as he’d just set foot into Dominator!

“You’re... gravely injured!” Liu Long assessed unhappily. “Can you not heal yourself anymore?”

“Yep.” Li Hao nodded with a fatigued smile. “Don’t worry, I just look weak. I’ll be even stronger when my internal force recovers!”

Liu Long nodded, then suddenly raised, “You could withstand your aura invading your organ, but suffered heavy internal damage when my aura of the waves didn’t even enter your body. How come your organs go from weak to strong so quickly?”

“......”

Silence.

“Chief, I’m actually injured now!” Li Hao coughed softly.

Liu Long swept him with a cold glare. Got nothing to say now, huh, you little bastard? He couldn’t be bothered to take Li Hao to task for his lie. “Do you think... I can give it a try?”

Li Hao opened his mouth, but didn’t have a response.

“The answer is no, isn’t it?” Liu Long’s expression was a sight to behold.

“That’s not it...” Li Hao laughed dryly. “But chief, we should first slowly nurture our auras and organs. My... situation is a bit unique, you know how it is. My organs are already very strong, so I decided to just give it a try. But don’t worry, I’ll help you when I think of a way and get my hands on some goodies...”

“Forget it!” Liu Long deflated, then quickly recovered his composure. “I’m already satisfied with being able to set foot into Dominator! At least there’s a path ahead and Dominator is just the beginning. My internal force and organs are still developing. They haven’t reached their limits yet. Once they do, I’ll be able to fight peak Sunflare at the very least. I’m in no hurry.”

The path of martial dao was to be walked slowly. Li Hao had taken a shortcut, but that was his fortuitous opportunity. Or rather, one left behind by the Li ancestors. If he had an incomparably strong forefather who’d left behind these treasures to resolve these obstacles, he might be in a greater hurry than Li Hao or keep more to himself. The young man hadn’t withheld that many secrets from the rest of the team.

“What supernatural level do you think you’ll map to when you recover? Can you fight a late Solar like your teacher?”

“......” Li Hao raised his head and looked blankly at Liu Long. A late Solar? You... you really think the world of me! I’m just nurturing my auras, I’m not a real Summoner. There’s still a difference between me and teacher. Teacher’s auras had reached great perfection—while I’m not sure where mine are, I know that my supernatural locks aren’t strong enough.

My auras are also in an initial state, teacher’s are on a completely different plane! He succeeded decades ago. How am I supposed to compare to him?

“Chief, I’ll tell you when I reach great perfection with my auras!” Li Hao laughed wryly. “I’ve depleted too many resources and exhausted my internal force. I can’t meld the second aura at the moment. I can try when I’ve recovered!”

He had to give up the sword aura for the time being. That had to wait until later!

The young man also felt that the sword aura would be much more difficult and dangerous. It was best not to try it for now. He couldn’t help but think of the source for the sword aura. What if his lungs were pierced clean through by the sword stroke?

A sword didn’t want to be confined in the first place, particularly the one that he’d seen. If the process of nurturing the sword was similar to locking down the earth aura... then he wouldn’t try nurturing his sword aura unless he strengthened his lungs to the level of one thousand cubes!

“That’s just as well...” the young man mumbled. The sword aura for the outside and earth aura inside. The combination of offensive outer and defensive inner suited his purposes. He stumbled as he rose to his feet and glanced at the outer city. “Let’s go, chief. Let’s go directly to the city gates and not waste time with the ones inside the city anymore. Anyone can tell that I’m gravely injured, so withdrawing from training won\'t be losing face for the Five Styles discipline.”

The biggest lure of the outer city was the prospect of obtaining mysterious power. But without sword energy, Li Hao didn’t lust for mysterious power as much.

“Alright!” Liu Long didn’t mind. His goal was to kill Li Dahu—they’d crossed that off a long time ago. Hunting supernaturals for their mysterious power... Since he was a Dominator and didn’t hold hopes of ascending to the supernatural world, that energy no longer held as much allure for him.

It was also why the Solars didn’t really care about mysterious power. Breaking the fifth supernatural lock wasn’t a matter of accumulating mysterious power. It required time—time to slowly wear away at the lock until it was broken. If one tried to ram right through it, it was more likely that self-detonation was the ending instead!

When one reached Solar, one could also partake of mysterious power naturally produced by the world. It was what the Revolution King meant by Hao Lianchuan being able to produce more than one hundred cubes in two months.