Star Gate

Chapter 434: The Ruins Open Again (I)

“They can enter if they pay the entrance fee!”

Struck dumb by the response, Li Hao nodded and quickly departed.

An exuberant Wang Ming peeked into the storage rings when Li Hao left. His joy deepened as he took stock of what he had. So many storage rings! Why had Li Hao suddenly become so generous?

He quickly returned to the army camp and jumped in fright when his grandfather appeared as soon as he came back.

“Did you go out to meet a friend?” he asked calmly instead of berating his grandson for flouting orders.

“Yes.”

“I hear they were a Silver Moon Guard?”

“Yes!” Wang Ming nodded. “A martial master friend I used to know. He’s doing well for himself in the Guards, so he came to me to catch up.”

“You need to think things through.” Wang Peng looked at his grandson. “I won’t interfere with your matters, but you need to be very cognizant of one point—even though no one speaks of it and everyone avoids it, the eight families can detonate at any time!”

With that, he left. He didn’t say too much as he just wanted his grandson to see certain things clearly. The eight families were an enormous keg of gunpowder. Red Moon had always set their eyes on the eight families and quite a few others were silently watching them. That no one talked about them didn’t mean that no one was paying attention.

In reality, all of the true powerhouses were keeping a close eye on the matter!

It wasn’t necessarily a good development that his grandson was growing so close to Li Hao. However, Wang Peng didn’t spell it out. It was up to Wang Ming’s own choices.

Wang Ming curled his lip after his grandfather left, not thinking much of the warning. They can detonate at any time? So what? Fortuitous opportunities will come only if that gunpowder ignites! His grandfather lived a life of prudent caution, which resulted in him losing the position of the White Dragon commander. It should’ve been his and was almost certain to go to the Wangs.

The family had sent Wang Ming to the Night Watchers to stabilize their footing afterward, but as it turned out, Hou Xiaochen’s attention was on the Silver Moon Guards instead of the Night Watchers. It turned out to be another bad investment!

At the end of the day, his grandfather earned nothing for his efforts apart from a middle-of-the-road title that would’ve been his regardless. What use was that?

And for Wang Ming, he was assigned to Silver City after becoming a Full Moon and advanced rapidly. He was already a mid Sunflare now and Li Hao had just mentioned a desire to invest more heavily in the young man. Perhaps becoming a Sunflare or even Nova wouldn’t be a problem!

Wang Ming might have a big mouth and look very silly at times, but he wasn’t a fool. The energy that’d come from Li Hao had been too special. Wang Ming felt that if there was enough of it, he’d be a solid peak Solar, if not Nova. It wouldn’t take too long either.

His grandfather had started exploring the supernatural twenty years ago, but just barely made it into peak Solar. He’d only done so because pressure had grown too much lately and the family had exhausted its coffers to push Wang Peng to those heights.

Since the family itself wasn’t destined for great fortune, then Wang Ming would create their fortune through drawing close to someone who could. He immediately threw his grandfather’s words to the back of his mind. The eight families... What a pity that my Wang family isn’t the Wangs of the eight. But at least I’m Yuan Shuo’s honorary disciple.

......

Li Hao didn’t care how Wang Ming was. As bumbling as he might be, he was sometimes very reliable. At the very least, he always accomplished the tasks set to him. Li Hao perused the information from Wang Ming and compared it to his observations, slowly grasping a clear picture of the situation. There was no hurry to look at what the deputy had given him.

A figure flashed out of the darkness—Liu Long.

“Who did you walk off with earlier?” He’d been waiting outside and had been confused to see Li Hao leave with an old man.

“Deputy Zhou of the provincial government.”

“Ah... he recognized you?”

“Yes.”

Liu Long was surprised, but not that startled. He fell in step beside Li Hao. “It’s best to have as little to do with those guys as possible. They’re scholars who’ve been officials for decades. They’ll say whatever they need to whoever they wish at whenever they want.”

Li Hao started laughing. “Chief, have you heard of Yuan Xingwu?”

“Hmm?” A surprised Liu Long nodded. “Of course, your eldest senior brother. Both he and your master were in Silver City when I was on duty there, so of course I know him. We met a few times. Other than being a bit extreme at times, he’s a fine guy. I rather admire him.”

“He’s extreme?”

“Yes,” Liu Long explained. “He can be a little much. Your master was suppressed by others after the rise of the supernatural, but he was more agitated and furious than your master. He eventually went against Yuan Shuo’s wishes and left home. That’s pretty much it, I’m not sure where he went after that. You saw him?”

“Yep.” Li Hao didn’t offer anything else. “The ruins will open the day after tomorrow. Will you be going inside, chief?”

“I want to, and I will if I can. If I can’t... you’ll be on your own.” Liu Long did want to participate in the expedition, and not for the potential treasure. He just wanted to see more fights between powerhouses. As a martial master, he wouldn’t be able to improve if he always fought those weaker than him. He’d just barely set foot into Summoner. Now was when he should spar with powerhouses and quickly improve.

“Then let’s wait and see,” Li Hao hummed with thought. “If it comes down to it, we’ll pretend to be wandering cultivators. But that’ll be more difficult because they might all have our pictures. If we have to, we can wear a mask or cloak or something like the three great organizations. I’m sure no one will look that closely at us then.”

The three great organizations had always been thus—when had the person beneath the disguise ever been investigated? Many wandering cultivators would be doing the same.

“Are you not going to wait for the director?”

“Let’s get inside first.” Li Hao led Liu Long back to the little town that the Demon Hunters were resting at.

......

September 27.

There was no grand challenge this time. The battle between Yuan Shuo and the Qimei Staff was just a month ago, but it seemed like it’d been eons for many.

Yuan Shuo was still rampaging through the central region. Red Moon remained hunting him, but they couldn’t lay hands on the old man. He had an incredible plethora of methods and techniques. He could conceal his presence, change his appearance, hide, counter track...

He was skilled at them all since he had nothing else better to practice during all those years in Silver City. Not only that, but Yuan Shuo was particularly familiar with the terrain, people, and culture of the central region. He escaped being surrounded multiple times and came back to kill his pursuers instead. The Red Moon powerhouses were being run into the ground as the old demon of yesteryear once more displayed his tenacity and brutality.

......

At the same time.

The three great organizations stirred uneasily.

At the Red Moon camp.

Blue Moon frowned ferociously, an expression echoed by Green Moon. There was no sign to be seen of Tidal Wave. According to their agreement, she was to return before the 28th even if she couldn’t kill Li Hao. They were to enter the ruins together. The presence of a Nova was significant to the expedition.

“It’s not just Elder Tidal Wave, but the Revolution King and the sixteen hell masters under the Parity King have yet to return as well,” Violet Moon gave a quick report. “Our people have gone to Ash Mountain, but it’s a very dangerous place. There are major monster spirits there and they ran into a Solar level one along the way. They decided to retreat after losing a few. They were unable to find traces of Elder Tidal Wave or the others.”

“So many people hunting a few martial masters...” Green Moon grumbled. “The strongest of them is Li Hao and he has not reached the Nova level. And they still lost him?? Is Tidal Wave an idiot?”

It was not good that the elder had not returned even now.

“Forget her if she really doesn’t make it in time...” Blue Moon said after some thought.

“Forget it?!” Green Moon snapped. “It’s not just the problem of one Nova. It would’ve been best if Tidal Wave had captured Li Hao. Killing him would also do. If worst came to worst, she could call off the hunt and both of them could come back. We have more chances in the ruins! Now look at this, both of them have disappeared and you want to forget it??”

She snorted with obvious dissatisfaction. Blue Moon was trash! He’d summoned so many people here, but made a grave misstep all the same! It was only to be expected, that bitch’s son was pure and utter trash!

Blue Moon flicked a glance at Green Moon. As the second generation of his position, his status naturally wasn’t as high as this one. But as one of the Seven Moons, it wasn’t the first time that Green Moon had treated him in this manner. It was rather Violet Moon that she showed some respect to, even though Violet Moon was a third generation.

Violet Moon had an impressive backer. He did not.

“Then we wait,” he said calmly. “We can wait another day. If she is still not back tomorrow, we’ll have to set out for the ruins and then see.”

What else could they do? Green Moon only knew how to complain; she didn’t do anything proper.

Violet Moon could bear the situation no longer. Although Blue Moon sometimes took the law into his own hands, he still actually took action, despite not finding much success. Upon seeing that Green Moon wanted to continue her tirade against him, Violet Moon spoke up.

“Aunt Peacock, let’s first discuss what we should be doing in the ruins after we enter the ruins tomorrow.” The day was at hand, but the delegation didn’t have any plans.

Green Moon’s furious expression softened slightly when Violet Moon spoke. “Our leader gave us a few words before we came. Our first target is still to either capture Li Hao or bring his corpse back. The second is to determine the true nature behind Battle Heaven...”

“What true nature?” Violet Moon asked with surprise. Wasn’t it just to seize the treasures? Origin weapons and others, no?

Green Moon wasn’t that certain herself, she could only say, “That’s what our leader said. He didn’t set any concrete targets. Also, don’t touch anything in the city and be careful of Hou Xiaochen. It will be very difficult to kill him, but we can try to force him to continuously use his strength.”