Star Gate

Chapter 260: Reawakening (I)

The third drop of heart blood splashed over the gate. Still ineffective! Li Hao’s face was pale, but he quickly recovered with the aid of the blood pearls. He exhaled slowly and looked toward Hao Lianchuan.

“Director... please burn my blood away so that Red Moon doesn’t use it for some other purpose...”

Violet Moon was actually so inclined and wanted to collect the young man’s blood from the gates. Instead, Hao Lianchuan waved a fireball into existence and scoured the city gates of every drop of blood.

There were no other ideas left to the assembly. It looked like the two Solars had no choice but to head up the city wall to lure the Silver Armor down. A heavily panting Li Hao backed away. He wore an unhappy expression, but inwardly capered with glee. He’d made out like a bandit again!

The key piece of new knowledge that he’d gained was the particular attraction to the two characters. When he lifted his head once more to look at them, it felt like he gazed upon the diagram of the eight trigrams in Silver City.

It wasn’t the eight trigrams that he looked at, but a faint image of a person writing out the two characters in calligraphy.

“Battle Heaven!” The person bore a longbow the color of blood on his back and a blade at his waist. It was the faintest of shadows, but it overwhelmed the young man to the point where color drained from his face.

The figure lacked the dominating presence of the Li forefather and his killing intent, so how did it seem so... terrifying?!

It was just the faintest of images without sound; he seemed to be a very genteel, refined person. And yet, Li Hao felt like he’d plunged straight into the pits of hell. He didn’t dare look at the figure head-on!

He lowered his head, sweat dripping in large drops from his forehead.

“Li Hao...”

“Chief... I... lost too much heart blood... my injuries are flaring up again... I’m in a lot of pain...” Li Hao gasped for breath like a drowning fish.

The assembly jerked with shock. How was the young man in such poor condition? That rainfall of sweat didn’t seem like an act, but how could that be with just three drops of heart blood? Were his previous injuries acting up again?

The back of that figure appeared in Li Hao’s mind’s eye. It didn’t make a move, unsheathe a sword, or do anything at all. It simply calmly wrote out two characters, but that was more terrifying than the sword stroke that Li Hao had seen before.

Who was that? A Wang forefather? Why did he seem so much frightful than his own ancestors? Or was he so weak that he couldn’t tell the difference and subconsciously finding the man horrifying? Or had the Li forefather shown a descendant grace and dulled the sensation for Li Hao?

Questions floated into his mind as Li Hao heaved for air. Sweat dripped onto the ground; it took a while before the voices by his ear became more clear. He felt that he’d survived absolutely calamity once more. These people could cause death simply by the backs of their figures from eons ago. That was the true horror of the situation.

The Wangs! Li Hao turned the surname over in his mind. Was the Wang forefather this terrifying? Could it be... that his Li family was the weakest among the eight? No way!

But he had to consider the possibility with this latest development.

......

The young man lowered his head, his eyes shot through with blood. He’d only gotten a glimpse of that figure’s back, but it was like he saw the cosmos. It wore a longbow, blade, and held a calligraphy brush.

There was no connection to the turtle of the Wangs, none at all. Yet someone like this had appeared here endless periods ago to write down these characters.

The others didn’t see anything; Li Hao hadn’t at first either. It wasn’t until he sprayed his blood over the city gates and drew the attention of those characters that he witnessed the frightening scene.

The young man panted heavily, drawing strange looks from those around him. Hu Dingfang was nearly dancing in place from frustration and a bit of regret. He hadn’t thought three drops of blood essence would matter; Li Hao was getting the far better end of the deal in trading them for three blood pearls.

But now, Violet Moon would already be dead on the ground if looks could kill!

Even Hao Lianchuan thought Li Hao was acting at first... but he slowly dismissed the thought when the young man continued to shake and drip with sweat. How horrifying would the lad be if this was a facade?

“Li Hao!” Hao Lianchuan called out. A silent Liu Long scanned the premises with an ill-tempered expression on his face. The young man’s condition was not right.

Li Hao lifted his head after a long moment. His eyes were shot through with blood and he seemed to be in considerable pain and shock. “I’m... fine...” he gasped out. “It’s just that my... internal injuries seized up... It’s like a burst of dark force exploded in my body... I’m fine now.”

Hao Lianchuan looked coldly at the Celestial delegation. Hu Dingfang directed a look that promised death at Kong Qi. A burst of dark force? They’d left something behind in Li Hao’s body?

Kong Qi found himself quite innocent when the two glared at him. It’s nothing to do with me! I really didn’t attack Li Hao, I didn’t even run into him! What am I supposed to attack?

But... it really was very difficult to explain himself at the moment. The young man’s status did indeed appear to be the result of wounds besetting him. There was nothing Kong Qi could do. Any explanation was useless, not to mention that killers were not in the habit of defending themselves.

The rest of the assembly was so quiet that one could hear a pin drop. Li Hao was just a Sunderer and thus inconsequential to the greater picture, but his master was one to consider. Yuan Shuo was the foremost martial master of the dynasty and an existence who could slay late Solars. If something happened to Li Hao here... blood and violence will soon rain upon the lands.

A drenched Li Hao stood up after a while and smiled. “Really, I’m fine. My apologies for causing everyone concern. This is how martial masters are—we often deal with latent injuries. Thankfully, there\'s blood pearls to make use of, so I might be able to recover very soon!”

He swallowed a second blood pearl as he spoke. Of the three blood pearls that he’d received, he was down to one in the blink of an eye. Normal people wouldn’t go through them so quickly, but his injuries were so severe that a faster than usual rate of consumption seemed normal.

In actuality, his organs were swiftly digesting the last two blood pearls and the Darkmoon one from earlier. As a Dominator who nurtured one aura, he consumed a great deal of resources. He wouldn’t dare take blood pearls like this in regular times—the energy from these scarlet shadows had once blocked his meridians and turned them solid.

But now, all that two blood pearls did was help his five visceral organs recover from their injuries and replenish the blood essence and internal force that he’d depleted.

Dominator of Thousands was completely different from Sunderer of Hundreds. He’d switched from a small cup to a large wooden tub in terms of energy capacity. His internal force was much stronger than before and his blood was also different. The transfusion of blood was wholly complete.

He didn’t dare look at the two characters over the city gates anymore, they were too frightening. His presence recovered greatly after he took the second Sunflare level blood pearl; he was no longer as white as a sheet.

The scene came across very differently to the rest of the crowd. Blood pearls were miraculous healing panaceas! The healing properties were incredible enough, even if they didn’t enhance a martial master’s cultivation level.

“Li Hao’s already made his attempt.” Hao Lianchuan turned his attention to Violet Moon. “You saw it for yourself, it was completely ineffective. Shouldn’t you two be giving it a try now?”

Li Hao did his part, now it’s your turn.

Violet Moon’s expression was calm. She flicked a glance at Hong Yitang, then at the Celestial delegation. “Celestial had people take the second passageway too. Have one of them fly five meters up into the air and see if they’re attacked.”

Ding Chen didn’t say anything in defense of his organization. Yama had paid the price of two blood pearls, they paid one. The Night Watchers sent out Li Hao, the Sword Sect offered Hong Yitang. They were indeed putting forth the least amount of effort. Thus, he simply glanced at a Sunflare.

The Sunflare in question said nothing when he saw his leader look at him. He pushed off from the ground and shot into the air. Three meters, five meters, ten meters...

Interlopers were usually attacked at five meters, but nothing happened this time.

So it’s true! Many rejoiced. Many of the survivors had taken the second passageway. Other than the Night Watchers who didn’t send a single person, most of the rest had come through that avenue.

They were honored guests according to the customs of the ancient city. The rest were illegal trespassers! Honored guests had a proper identity, so the restrictions weren’t that strict for them. As for illegal trespassers, who cared if you died or remained in good health!

Li Hao involuntarily looked at Hao Lianchuan when he saw that the Celestial representative now had freedom of flight. It would’ve been nice to send a portion of their people through the second passageway. What if their enemies all took to the air? Liu Long had gone through the ancient house, so he should be able to fly. As for the others, including himself... Li Hao didn’t know if they could. Martial masters didn’t give off supernatural ripples. But he’d never tried it as who knew if a martial master would also be blasted to death?

It’d be one thing if he never saw the airstrike in action, but after seeing Violet Moon nearly obliterated, no one dared give it a try. Hao Lianchuan’s word of warning wasn’t necessary. If Solars couldn’t withstand the pressure, how could they?

Hu Dingfang frowned and transmitted, “Hao Lianchuan, we should let a portion of our people take the second passageway. I can do it if you’re unwilling to. Otherwise, once our partnership is at an end and Violet Moon takes to the air... How will we respond to them then?”

The gap between one side being able to fly and the other being grounded was apparent. Being unable to fly was a self-imposed restriction.

“Don’t worry!” Hao Lianchuan responded through transmission. “What are you in a hurry for? You’d have to go up there too if you can fly with impunity. Who the heck knows what’s behind the walls? What if there’s a Gold Armor or something like that... Do you have a death wish? Let them go up first. That makes it easy for us to run if the situation turns south!”

He knew that the Night Watchers would struggle with additional limitations if none of their people went inside the ancient house, yet it wasn’t necessarily a worse situation than what it was now. Had people forgotten that Yao Cheng had died inside the house?

It was an incredible feat that twenty Night Watchers were still alive at this stage. That they hadn’t lost a single Sunflare was a miracle! Hao Lianchuan felt that this expedition was well worth it even if they left now. The evil organizations of Silver Moon had suffered enormously on this excavation to the point that even their foundations in Silver Moon were affected!

Violet Moon was more at ease when she saw that Hao Lianchuan hadn’t lied to them. They could indeed fly. On the other hand, Hong Yitang was highly conflicted.

Oh, fuck! So I really have to take the risk?