Star Gate

Chapter 317: Winds Rise (III)

“You don’t understand, things aren’t that simple!” Blue Moon shook his head. “We discovered his existence only after Li Hao turned eighteen! It wasn’t like we were aware of him from the beginning—we only confirmed his status as a direct descendent of the core Li family after he was eighteen. Before that, it wouldn’t mean anything even if we determined he was part of the Lis!

“He was already Yuan Shuo’s student at eighteen. And the leader did move against the Lis before this. His parents’ death was our earlier work, but we didn’t think that his father wasn’t the core of his family legacy... That is what’s so frustrating about all of this!

“Not to mention, it wasn’t an appropriate time,” Blue Moon continued in a soft voice. “We couldn’t take Li Hao with us. It would’ve been bad if we had—his bloodline would swiftly downgrade. His father may have lost the bloodline inheritance because we got to him outside the city.”

Violet Moon listened silently, she had nothing to offer as she hadn’t participated in any of this. She hadn’t been aware of the organization’s plan against the eight families for that long. She was an outsider before as she’d only recently inherited the Violet Moon position.

Their leader seemed to have given up on taking Li Hao alive with this command of bringing back the young man’s corpse. She wasn’t aware if there was anything involved to warrant this change.

“Blue Moon, what do the eight families represent?”

“Don’t ask!” Blue Moon replied softly. “Even I’m not clear on that, but I won’t ask. Asking too many questions is not a good thing, and knowing too much isn’t a good thing either. Our task is simple, bring back Li Hao!”

“When do we make our move?” asked Violet Moon. “Hou Xiaochen is too strong. You may not be a match for him either.”

“When everything falls into chaos!”

Violet Moon sank into deep thought. When was chaos coming?

“It’ll be soon!” Blue Moon smirked. “The Night Watcher central headquarters have sent a few kids that have no idea how immense this world is. All they think about is achieving deeds of merit and pacifying rebellion. The only thing they have in their sights is taking down Hou Xiaochen. Those kids will be our greatest help.”

“Hu Qingfeng?” Violet Moon doubted. “He may be a Nova, but he’s less than Red Hair. Where does he get the courage to provoke Hou Xiaochen?”

Is he crazy?

“He’s not crazy. Not only is he not crazy, but he’s wide awake!” Blue Moon chortled. “He can’t take down Hou Xiaochen, but... there’s people willing to help him! Like... me! And the Equality King, and Half Mountain!”

The man smiled radiantly. “Hou Xiaochen is a thorn in our side, so I agreed to it! Of course, this isn’t important. I just need Hu Qingfeng to make a move and distract Hou Xiaochen. I can take Li Hao as soon as he does. ...no, it might be better for you to do the deed. I don’t mind crossing paths with Hou Xiaochen to see how strong he really is.

“And if four Novas aren’t enough, we can add more!” Blue Moon chuckled. “There are plenty of people in the central region who wish to see where his limits are. If we can’t take him this time, we’ll send five, six Novas... If all of us combined can’t take him, then we’ll wait for even stronger existences to come!”

Violet Moon took a deep breath. These people had allied together! It was an initiative she hadn’t considered before because she felt it may not be the best move.

“Tell me truly, Blue Moon, is there more than you here?” she asked.

Blue Moon looked at her with a stern look. “I told you, it’s not good to know too much!”

Violet Moon was irritated, but didn’t ask further. Are there more here from the elder council or the other Seven Moons? They can’t possibly have not prepared anything after knowing how strong Hou Xiaochen is.

As strong as Blue Moon was... Violet Moon didn’t think much of him rivaling Hou Xiaochen. The man’s overbearing tyranny in gently stabbing Red Hair to death was still fresh in her mind.

......

Li Hao had almost toyed the scarlet shadow in his apartment to death. It vanished when Hao Lianchuan returned. The young man didn’t go out to meet the deputy director. He’d had enough of seeing the man’s face for the day. He began compressing the ferocious tiger in his heart after the shadow left.

The tiger sword!

He wanted to see if he could turn this tiger into a fire tiger sword before tomorrow night!

Li Hao did not sleep again tonight. He kept trying to compress the tiger, but it was incredibly stubborn. It refused to be shaped into a sword even though it was on the verge of deformation. It was quite a headache for Li Hao as his auras couldn’t be too disorderly.

If one was a sword, another was a tiger, and a third was a mountain, that would be disadvantageous for fully deploying their might. While that made them more comprehensive, a jack of all trades usually meant master of none. Yuan Shuo was very well rounded, and while he wasn’t mediocre, he didn’t hold much of an advantage when it came to pure offensive power.

Li Hao tried for a very long time this night. He compressed the tiger by a great amount, but was unable to create a sword. All he could do was squeeze the tiger into a more compact version.

......

It was morning of September 6 in the blink of an eye. Li Hao reported to work on time, as usual. Traveling with Hao Lianchuan meant that he could bypass much unwanted attention along the way.

It was his third day in White Moon City.

Inside the car.

Hao Lianchuan glanced at the young man who had his eyes closed. The more the deputy director looked, the more he felt that the kid was different from two days ago.

“Li Hao...”

“Mmhmm.”

“Be careful tonight!”

“I know.” Li Hao nodded. “How much time do you need before joining me, director?”

“Thirty seconds at most, ten seconds at the very least! You must guarantee your own safety within these thirty seconds. Otherwise... I’ll give up the plan! We don’t have to kill him, I just want to vent my ill will. We don’t have to do this.”

That wasn’t too fast. A fight involving powerhouses could be over within ten seconds. Hao Lianchuan being an initial Solar... or mid Solar now... wasn’t fast to begin with. He was better off with the Flaming Phoenix Spear, but it was still too long of an interval.

“That won’t do,” Li Hao laughed. “I’ve already arranged everything. Trouble won’t leave me alone if we don’t do it.”

“Then... make sure you know what you’re doing. Otherwise, your master won’t let me off the hook if anything happens to you!” Hao Lianchuan suddenly regretted his actions. Although he knew that the kid was bold and possessed some smarts, he suddenly recalled that the kid’s master was Yuan Shuo.

If anything happened to Li Hao, Yuan Shuo would certainly run him to hell for it, even if Hou Xiaochen didn’t. He abruptly regretted this chain of events, he should’ve stayed away from his impulses!

Li Hao, on the other hand, was very calm. He looked out the car window and breathed out softly. He hoped... that he would have the chance to deploy one sword stroke today. Just one would do. The tiger sword ardently wished to attack. Perhaps it’d be willing to be a sword once it vented some of its grievances!

......

The southern quadrant of the city. Night Watcher headquarters.

Another quiet day began. All of White Moon was very quiet these days. Nothing happened apart from a few small problems. There weren’t even conflicts above Sunflare.

Hou Xiaochen still did not appear and the other side didn’t seem to be in a rush. They quietly waited for his return. No action was hastily taken just because they heard he was injured.

Wang Ming arrived early this day as well, but he was just here to show his face and check on Li Hao. He wasn’t going to stay for long.

......

Wang Ming clucked his tongue with admiration and envy as he took a tour of Li Hao’s office.

“Old Hao is damn good to you!” His colleague had his own office!

A pity it was next to Manager Yu, though. Wang Ming even went to the trouble of keeping his voice down as he talked. Otherwise, he’d want to get a taste of what it felt like to work in an office. Having an office at headquarters was a mark of one’s status.

Li Hao smiled without a word. He was polishing his longsword. The Earthturner Sword felt quite nice in the hand.

Wang Ming naturally knew that action might take place soon after he ran his mouth two days ago. He registered Li Hao’s actions and winked at his colleague, eager and excited.

Li Hao raised his head and grinned at the handsome supernatural. After some thought, he transmitted, “The work day is over at 6 pm and I arrive home around 6:30 pm. Do something for me during this period of time.”

Wang Ming wasn’t surprised by the method of communication since he knew that Li Hao could transmit. He bobbed his head rapidly with anticipation, dearly wishing to be involved.

“There are seven surveillance cameras placed along the street from headquarters to the Inspectorate’s family accommodations. I need all seven to stop working during this period of time and for no one to discover it. Can you do it?”

Wang Ming frowned and muttered, “That’s an Inspectorate responsibility. It’ll... be hard for me to pull that off. And maintaining it for half an hour...”

It was indeed a difficult proposal. Wang Ming thought some more on it. “I know what you want. I can only do that for a certain area and just a short amount of time. How about this, as soon as I hear or sense something, I’ll barge into the surveillance office and knock the guards unconscious. I’ll take all the tapes and destroy them. How about that? No one will care about it after the fact.”

“Do you know where the surveillance office is?” Li Hao raised an eyebrow at him.

Wang Ming grinned widely in immediate agreement. Of course he knew!

“My friends and I used to race cars through the city and were warned a few times. We knew where it was after that,” he murmured. This was a small matter, he wanted to be more involved. “Is there anything else I can do?”

Li Hao mused over the matter given how excited Wang Ming was. He nodded. “Buy dinner for me and wait for me to come back tonight.”

“......” Wang Ming looked at him, speechless. He glowered and said no more. Are you even listening to yourself??

Li Hao chuckled and ignored his compatriot. Sunflares weren’t worth much anymore. As strong as this fellow was, it was more than Darkmoons who wanted to move against him now.