Star Gate

Chapter 387: A Victorious First Battle (I)

“Do we have a target?” Liu Long asked in a low voice. Li Hao took out a map and pointed at a specific area. “Here are the Night Watchers. Director Hao did some preparatory work before and locked onto certain areas that may be strongholds for the three great organizations. He’s paused from further investigation because Red Moon has entered the province in large numbers. I benefit from his efforts instead.”

Was that really benefiting?

“This particular spot is closest to Rift Canyon,” Li Hao continued. “It might be a Red Moon stronghold. I sent Wang Ming there first to see if he can bait some people out.” With that, he bought into his own picture of grandeur that he was painting. “We’ll slip in at night. It’s early yet, so if all goes well, they’ll be distracted by Wang Ming. We’ll follow them to their nest and clean out the entire lot!”

“There’s another fifty kilometers to that spot.” Liu Long studied the map. “Can people hold up?”

“I’m doing that on purpose. Slayers don’t have much internal force, I want to deplete them!” Li Hao muttered. “Only then will new force be born to extend the old force. Any scarlet shadows or mysterious power that we absorb will show the greatest effect!”

That was the theory, but Liu Long felt that it might give rise to some complaints within the team. After some thought, however, he set it out of his mind.

“We move out!” Li Hao grunted after half an hour. “I’ll knock out anyone who lags and leave you here. Don’t blame me if wild beasts, supernaturals, or martial masters come across you and kill you!”

Some Slayers nearly broke out in curses when they heard this. Are you human?!

But one had to lower their heads when under another’s roof. As great as their resentment was building, they had to silently follow behind their leader. The Sunderers gave them a hand sometimes, particularly during difficult stretches of the path.

Martial masters weren’t weak, but they were no different from mundanes when their internal force was depleted.

......

There was a large lake surrounded by trees roughly twenty-five kilometers from Rift Canyon. It was a beautiful environment with a gorgeous view. Since it was far from the city, however, not many visited on a normal basis. It was extremely quiet at night.

Two young men and three young women had set up camp here tonight. They built a bonfire and enjoyed themselves with a party. Their tents were set up by the lake.

The five chatted and laughed with joy, enjoying grilled food and partaking fragrant wine that traveled upon the wind. Their laughter was loud, but close inspection revealed certain nervousness in the depths of their eyes.

One of the young men was Wang Ming, the other was Zhou Qin—the one who’d captured the tiger. Zhou Qin was munching on a skewer and chortling at a joke, but tension filled his eyes. Some incidents had occurred at this spot before, people often went missing. This wasn’t a good place to be.

And yet, this was precisely where they wanted to visit. Excitement and thrills were what they pursued.

“Ole Wang...” Zhou Qin kept his voice down after a few more bites.

Laughing heartily, Wang Ming shook his head when he noticed that Zhou Qing wanted to say something. “This place is beautiful! White Moon is such a bore. It’s so stifling after staying there for long!”

The women quickly tittered in agreement. All of them were tense, but a certain glee marked their alertness. Daredevils, all three of them. They knew full well what this trip was about and wanted nothing more than for people to be watching them in the surroundings.

......

The truth was, there were indeed people watching them from the shadows. They saw five rich scions that were all supernaturals. There were no storage rings to be seen, but all of them wore energy rings. The flamboyant Wang Ming wore five energy rings between his two hands.

Energy rings were also quite valuable, but more importantly, they contained large quantities of mysterious power. One ring often held one thousand cubes. These youngsters might not possess that much, but even if there were only one hundred cubes in a ring, Wang Ming alone carried five hundred cubes. Any supernatural apart from the premier powerhouses would find this massively tempting.

There was more than Wang Ming present, there were five people total! Zhou Qin also wore an energy ring on his hand.

Two figures flashed through the ground roughly five hundred meters away from the small group. One of them emanated earth energy as he created a space underground. The other’s ear twitched as he noticeably extended it forward.

“They’re just chatting about inconsequential things,” Extended Ear whispered after a while. “But one of them mentioned an identity—there’s a Wang surnamed initial Sunflare among them. His status is high as his family has some authority within the White Dragons.”

“White Dragons?” The earth powerhouse thought for a bit and muttered, “Their vice commander is surnamed Wang. I think I know who this person is—Wang Ming of the Wang family! He’s hailed as a peerless genius and a Night Watcher supernatural...”

“A Night Watcher?” Extended Ear frowned.

“It’s fine, so what if he’s a Night Watcher?” whispered the earth supernatural. “It looks like they’re out to have fun. Let’s go back with this report. We just need to be a bit more careful.”

The two shifted quickly and burrowed into another area. They ran into open space after advancing for a while—earth supernaturals had fortified an underground base that spanned one acre.

People bustled to and fro from the underground buildings; there were quite a few of them.

They were only a few thousand meters away from the lake that Wang Ming and the others were at. Being several dozen meters underground in the wilderness, no one would discover them under ordinary circumstances.

An expert in a Ghostface mask met them upon their return. “Long Ear’s back! Well, what’s the situation?”

“Five rich second gens that are descendants of officials in White Moon City...” the two quickly summed up.

A hulking man in the distance walked over; he didn’t wear a mask. “A Night Watcher... Are they bait?”

“We didn’t see anyone following them,” replied the earth supernatural. “If they’re bait, they’re all children of powerful people and one of them’s a Night Watcher genius. It’ll be troublesome if anything happens to them, so would they be used as bait?”

“Even if they are, we can take them with Hao Lianchuan being absent and Hou Xiaochen not stirring from his office!” someone else laughed.

“It’s one Sunflare and four Darkmoons... They’re not weak, but they’re not worth anything either.”

“We should think this over carefully and not take rash action. Their camp is too close to our base. If they disappear, that’ll draw a deeper investigation from actual heavyweights...”

Discussion flourished as some wanted to kill these people, while others advocated for caution. Indeed, this was one of Red Moon’s strongholds. It held only ten or so people before, but swelled to nearly fifty when greater numbers of Red Moon powerhouses arrived in the province.

It was because of this that the base was a bit disorderly. There were too many people that came from different areas—members from three different provinces were crammed into this tiny stronghold. They didn’t feel much of a connection with each other, so a variety of voices and suggestions abounded when they talked.

They weren’t too far from Rift Canyon and were camped here for one mission—to kill supernaturals wandering around on their own. Any that didn’t belong to Red Moon were fair game. Those who were too strong to kill should be taken note of.

The based possessed a few supernaturals adept at investigation—Long Ear, for example. Although he was only a Fullmoon, his ears could hear anything within one thousand meters. It was an exceptionally useful ability.

There were also supernaturals skilled at observing things in the distance. The hour had grown too late for their ability, so they hadn’t been present earlier.

There were also powerhouses present, such as the hulking man. He was a peak Sunflare and the temporary leader of the camp. A headache brewed as the group squabbled and he cut them off, "That’s enough! Be quiet! There’s nothing noteworthy about the Night Watchers and we’ll kill them if we need to. We’ll get these guys so long as this isn’t a trap. These bastards have killed enough of us recently as it is! Since when did Red Moon fear the Night Watchers?

“The Silver Moon government and us have shared a death feud ever since Hou Xiaochen killed Elder Red Hair!” The man thought over his next steps. “Keep watching them for a bit to make sure they’re not bait from the Night Watchers. Also, have our people in White Moon investigate to see if the Night Watcher powerhouses have made any movements lately.”

“Understood!” The group dispersed. They spent their days beneath the ground crowded among too many people. It was impossible to properly train and they were all beginning to go stir crazy. Smiles spread across faces as they thought of the three tender women outside and the rich Wang Ming. They finally had something to do!

......

“Huff... puff...” Heavy panting sounded in the team. A group of nearly exhausted soldiers ran through the darkness. Some stabbed their longswords into the ground as walking sticks, ignoring how precious the weapon was and that it should not be used for this purpose.

Li Hao stopped up ahead. He looked back at Liu Long and transmitted, “Wang Ming seems to be nearby. I’m going to take a look first. If he’s lured some people over, we’ll attack right after resting for a bit!”

Liu Long was also growing resigned with the young man. They’d been running for a full day and night!

Li Hao ignored him and vanished on the spot.