Star Gate

Chapter 352: Compensation Package (I)

Li Hao looked askance at the spear—a drop of blood? Nothing’s going to happen to this if my blood gets on it, right? It’s not that I think highly of myself, but that the two characters of Battle Heaven were affected when I last spilled my blood...

But I’m just using regular blood this time, so it should be fine? It’s not like I can just walk out waving the Flaming Phoenix Spear around.

Li Hao squeezed a single drop of blood out of his fingertip and dropped it onto the origin weapon. It seemed to shudder when the blood hit it and a fiery phoenix manifested over the weapon. The young man looked at it curiously; the phoenix seemed to open its eyes as well.

It vanished the second it sensed Li Hao’s presence, taking all of the fiery light of the weapon with it. The origin weapon’s true form was revealed! The Flaming Phoenix Spear looked no different from a regular metal spear. Suddenly, it was much uglier without its flames. Its previous appearance left no doubt that it was a formidable weapon. Now... it was so ordinary!

Startled, Manager Yu looked at Li Hao. “The phoenix has withdrawn, that’s strange... Is there something wrong with your blood or something different about the bloodline of the eight families?

“The phoenix withdrawing means that the weapon has sealed itself away. It further means that you have no chance of activating it. All you can do now is use it as a regular weapon. It’s canceled even your right to activate it!”

“......” Li Hao was speechless. Was there a need for such a response? The heck did the weapon mean by this?? “Can we unseal it?”

“Yes, the director can do that!”

Forget I said anything. The young man was quite sullen. What the heck is this?? Does it think I mean it harm and therefore sealed itself as soon as it sensed my blood?

The spear darted into his body with a quick thought; it shrank to a very small size upon entering the body—a needle. It entered his organs in the blink of an eye and ceased to move.

How convenient!

Li Hao was rather envious. What a pity that his own little sword couldn’t do the same. But this thing was being very unruly. It’d sealed itself away! How was he supposed to use it then?

“Give it back to me after three days!” Manager Yu reminded. “Don’t think about running off with it, that’s impossible. The director will sense it if it’s too far away from him, so don’t even consider the possibility!”

Li Hao blinked, finally understanding something. “Manager Yu,” he began, the very picture of aggrieved innocence. “Even if you wouldn’t lend it to me, why would you think I would take it and run?”

Why would you ever think that? I’ve never considered doing so!

The woman waved her hand and indicated for him to leave; she wasn’t interested in explaining herself. You know better than anyone if you would’ve done it or not. The Five Styles discipline is known for brazen impulses. It wouldn’t be the first time that the discipline’s done something like that!

It wasn’t out of the question that Li Hao would abscond with the Flaming Phoenix Spear and seek out Yuan Shuo. In fact, it was highly likely. This was why she hadn’t wanted to lend it to the boy. Meanwhile, someone like Hao Lianchuan had been granted the right to use it because Hou Xiaochen hadn’t been worried of him running off.

Plainly, even Hou Xiaochen was mulling over the possibility, so he decided not to let the boy use it! If Li Hao could use the Flaming Phoenix Spear and truly ran off with it, they would have a difficult time retrieving it.

A dejected expression hung on the young man’s face. He’d truly never thought about doing that, why were they all pointing fingers at him for a crime he hadn’t committed? If you think that about me, I might as well really take the Flaming Phoenix Spear!

Seeing that the manager wasn’t engaging with him anymore, Li Hao had to bring up, “Then I’ll be heading to the Guards now...”

“Go downstairs and get in the car. Also, you need your own car in the future. Regular cars can’t go there, they’ll be destroyed. Buy a car and register it...”

“What, aren’t we assigned cars by the agency?” Li Hao asked with surprise. I’m a government employee! Besides, I don’t have money to buy a car.

Manager Yu frowned impatiently, she didn’t want to hear the young man talk. This guy was sometimes very irritating and constantly thought about taking advantage of others...

“Buy it yourself!”

“I don’t have any money!”

“You...” The manager narrowed her eyes as she thought he was joking.

“I really don’t!” Li Hao explained seriously. “I checked my bank account yesterday and there’s a balance of ten thousand in it. My salary didn’t come in last month, I don’t have enough money to buy a car!”

Oh... my... heavens. How is this guy so poor?! He’s a Dominator—no, a Summoner—so how is he this poor and finding it so proper to be so poor?! Manager Yu sighed after a long moment. “Alright! I’ll assign a car to you!”

Li Hao grinned from ear to ear, finally able to leave in a good mood.

The resigned secretary stared for a while after he left and picked up a communicator to make a call. She was silent for a while longer after it was picked up. “Hao Lianchuan, bump up Li Hao’s monthly salary to... a million coins a month!”

“Huh?” Hao Lianchuan blinked. “Isn’t he paid in cubes of mysterious power?”

“Give him money!” Manager Yu suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. It’s my first time seeing such a poor martial master in all my years of living. He’s an embarrassment to talk about! The kid probably doesn’t care about mysterious power, but he’d be delighted with a million coins. No wonder he’s so stingy all the time, he really doesn’t have any money.

“Is he that poor?” Hao Lianchuan seemed to grasp the implications as well. “No wonder he eats at the cafeteria everyday and simply buys a few buns at most. I thought this was a habit of his!”

Both of them suddenly wanted to laugh, but also felt a prickle of fear as they did so. They wouldn’t bat an eye if a young man of his age and strength was boastful and full of himself. It would be normal for him to take a different woman to bed every night, to say nothing of luxurious manors and flashy cars. Decadent food and wine went without saying.

However, the reality was that the young man didn’t seem to entertain these thoughts. An exceedingly self-regulated powerhouse of his young age was the most frightening of all.

A new thought struck the secretary. Does this guy want a promotion only because he wants a raise? If that’s the case... he’s crazy! Who wants a promotion for a little extra money?

......

Li Hao reached the first floor in a wonderful mood. That was another free car under his belt! Ah, the public rice bowl is the most delicious. I wonder when I can get a house? I still don’t have one under my name in White Moon City.

......

The car once more threaded through White Moon, past the jungle, into the vicinity of the Silver Moon Guards. Li Hao straightened his attire when he alighted, the car drove off as he did so. This was Hou Xiaochen’s car and it wouldn’t have brought him here if Li Hao didn’t have one himself.

Someone was already waiting at the door—the layabout Mu Lin was the best greeter. None of the other centurions were present as they had their own duties to attend to. They were all drilling troops in the distance and, well, could make time to welcome a new colleague if they wished. But having been beaten up just yesterday, they couldn’t bring themselves to step forward in welcome today.

“Welcome!” Mu Lin was just as polite and merry as yesterday.

Li Hao had discovered that fatties like to smile. Smiling made them appear honest and trustworthy. The fat Deputy Director Hao also liked to smile. Mu Lin’s younger brother, Mu Sen, was also a tiger that liked to smile. I wonder if there’s a Mu Mu in their family? Mu Lin and Mu Sen’s names are written solely with the “wood” radical, why not throw a few more woods in there?

“Hello to Deputy Mu!”

“Don’t call me that!” Mu Lin smiled. “Just call me second brother Mu. I’m still young in my early forties, don’t plonk such a heavy title on my head. The Guards usually call my name or second brother Mu if they’re showing me face!”

He was the second brother because the boss was Golden Spear. He couldn’t claim a higher honorific.

“You didn’t bring any luggage with you?” Mu Lin asked merrily. “That’s just as fine, everything you can possibly need is here. Apart from lacking all the people we want, we have everything else in abundance!”

He tugged Li Hao inside as he spoke; the young man surreptitiously took his hand back. What he meant by “surreptitious” was staring straight ahead and forcefully yanking his hand back, then pretending like nothing had happened. So long as he wasn’t awkward about it, the awkward one would be Mu Lin.

Mu Lin didn’t mind at all; he remained smiling happily.

“Ole brother Li, you’re unfamiliar with this place since you’ve just arrived. Let me show you around so you can get to know everything.”

“Thank you, Brother Second Mu!”

“......” Mu Lin blinked. Brother Second Mu? I said second brother Mu, did you mishear? But it didn’t matter upon further thought, it was all the same.

He took Li Hao through the gates and arrived at the massive plaza. It was so enormous that it would take a while to cross. Mu Lin took the young man down the right-hand side. “This is the sparring grounds, most of us usually train here. If you’re practicing a secret art that you find unsuited for the public eye, you can also train in a room. There are several cultivation rooms in the back that you can use.”

Li Hao inclined his head. There were a lot of people in the plaza—at least four hundred. Many of them were sneaking glances this way as they practiced, but swiftly retracted their gazes when they saw Li Hao turn in their direction.

“The entire base is split into three areas, this is one of them. The living quarters are in the back and the cultivation area in another section. Everyone has their own room in the living quarters. The centurions have a standalone section.”

Li Hao was quite satisfied with what he heard. So this means I’m being assigned a large house? Houses in the outskirts aren’t worth much, alright.

“The cultivation area exists because some of our special training methods are greatly useful when it comes to improving martial masters.”

“What kind of special cultivation methods?” Li Hao’s interest was piqued.

Mu Lin grinned broadly. “It was very difficult for martial masters to train before the supernatural domain rose. They often trained for seven, eight, or more than ten years and were still stuck at Slayer.

“With the rise of the supernatural, martial masters found that unattributed mysterious power could strengthen the body. This gave them another option. We later discovered that mysterious power stones offer comprehensive improvement, making them even better than unattributed power!”

Li Hao nodded continuously.