Star Gate

Chapter 486: Departure (I)

One of Kong Jie’s fists blasted a massive hole in the Parity King’s body. He stared at Kong Jie with reluctance, even in his final moments. “My sixteen hell masters have yet to return...”

“They\'re all dead!” Li Hao called out in the distance.

“......” The Parity King looked at the young man and closed his eyes, fully departing the world. They were all dead! That in itself was a comfort. They would’ve come back otherwise, which lessened the grievances and muttering in the Parity King’s heart.

“Strength comes from the self,” Kong Jie snorted. “So what if your sixteen hell masters had returned alive?”

He Yong killed the two remaining Yama powerhouses with one punch after the Parity King died. That marked the end of all of the powerhouses from the three great organizations. Qi Gang captured the Liu youngster and looked hesitantly at the crowd. “He’s from the Liu family of the Ministry of Finance...”

The Liu family oversaw the ministry. Although the youngster wasn’t the core of his generation, he was still of the nine ministries. The youngster’s face was pale; Hou Xiaochen flicked a glance at him.

“As I said before,” he responded calmly. “The nine ministries can join the Silver Moon delegation, but he decided to join the three great organizations... Therefore, kill him!”

Qi Gang’s heart jolted—were they really going to kill him? This wasn’t the three great organizations or a general from a neighboring province that they were talking about. This was one of the masters of the nine ministries, a member of the Lius!

“You and Hu Qingfeng take care of him!” Hou Xiaochen looked at him calmly, then at Hu Qingfeng playing dead off to the side. The latter turned as pale as a ghost. His injuries weren’t that severe, but it was too dangerous to fight a Nova. Thus, he pretended to be comatose when Li Hao and the others joined the battlefield, but now...

Hu Qingfeng swallowed hard when he read Hou Xiaochen’s aloof gaze. He quickly got up, no longer toppled over from his injuries. The Liu youngster that Qi Gang injured made a desperate plea and heaved for breath as he looked at Hou Xiaochen.

“You won’t have an easy time of things if I die! The three great organizations do not dare kill a direct descendant of the nine ministries—an agreement was made long ago! With everyone from the three great organizations being dead, the world will know that you’re behind this as soon as this expedition is over!

“All of the debt will fall on your head!”

Hou Xiaochen was calm in the face of such threats. He remained looking quietly at Qi Gang and Hu Qingfeng. The latter grit his teeth and slammed his palm down on the young man!

Bam!

Gravely wounded to begin with, the youngster’s meridians and tendons snapped from the blow. Qi Gang’s blood ran cold, but he didn’t dare say anything. He set his jaw and grunted with a punch!

Bam!

The young man’s organs exploded, his eyes widened and he froze stiff. All of the Novas were dead now, except for Light Sword and Yuan Xingwu.

Yuan Xingwu had been standing off to the side all this time. He didn’t run as he wouldn’t get away either, but neither did he participate in battle. He didn’t help Hou Xiaochen and the others, but neither did he help the three great organizations. No one knew what he was thinking.

Logically speaking, the Skystar Troops could’ve absolutely joined the operation against the three great organizations. With Yuan Xingwu’s identity and taking advantage of the situation, they could ensure that Hou Xiaochen wouldn’t easily move against them.

A declaration of loyalty was required, but they didn’t make a move from beginning to end.

“Little Yu, take care of the others!” Hou Xiaochen’s command sent Manager Yu vanishing on the spot.

Sounds of battle traveled in from the distance as Hu Dingfang and others had also come on the expedition. The Solars went off to pursue the panicked wandering cultivators. There were numerous Solars among their numbers as well.

Hou Xiaochen didn’t say anything. On Li Hao’s side, Hong Yitang and He Yong retreated to the city as well. The two sides were quiet, separated by dozens of meters.

......

After roughly half an hour, a group of people returned, bathed in blood. Hu Dingfang’s crew seemed to have suffered some injuries. Li Hao ignored them and focused his gaze on one person in the crowd.

“Chief, c’mere!” He raised a hand at none other than Liu Long.

The man was also covered in blood, possibly his, possibly someone else’s. Panting for breath, the man silently approached the inner city. Hou Xiaochen glanced at him, but didn’t say anything.

The Silver Moon authorities had come with approximately a dozen people for the excavation—they’d lost only two. They were Hu Qingfeng’s subordinates. The others had only suffered injuries, not casualties. It was an enormous victory for Silver Moon.

Manager Yu came back after a while. “Light Sword says that she will leave as soon as the ruins open. She won’t reveal anything and requests for Li Hao to remember his promise!”

Li Hao furrowed his brow and looked at Hou Xiaochen.

“It’s not that we can’t kill her.” The man grinned in seeming knowledge of an unspoken question. “If we want to, all of us stand a chance together even if she unseals herself. But there’s no need for that! She won’t reveal any secrets and will accomplish certain deeds for us if she’s alive. There will be much less pressure on you, too, Li Hao. The Xus might have to expend a lot of energy because of her.”

Li Hao sank deep into thought. The Xus... So she wanted him to suppress her locks once because she was going to cause trouble for the Xus?

How strange!

The young man wasn’t aware of the particulars, but he didn’t ask. There were four people and a dog on Li Hao’s side and thirteen total on Hou Xiaochen’s. There were ten with the Skystar Troops, Light Sword, and a Violet Moon prone on the ground. There were only twenty-nine humans and one dog alive in all of the expansive ruins.

There’d been almost two thousand in the beginning!

Martial masters were vicious when they made their moves and completely eradicated anyone they attacked. They fought without reservation and without consideration of who they could not or should not kill... To Hou Xiaochen, anyone not on his side in the ruins was an enemy and could thus be killed!

“What do you plan to do with Yuan Xingwu?” He grinned at Li Hao.

Yuan Xingwu looked on expressionlessly, his thoughts impossible to make out. Li Hao didn’t understand what he had in mind either, to be continuously standing here. The Solars under his command were slightly nervous and afraid. How could they not be, after watching so many die in front of them?

“Is Director Hou asking me?” Li Hao smiled.

“Yes,” Hou Xiaochen responded calmly. “You make the decision. If you think they should die, then they die. While they didn’t join the three great organizations, they sat idly by when the official authorities eliminated the evil supernatural organizations. That in itself is crime!”

Li Hao broke out in a grin and didn’t continue that train of thought. “Brother Second Mu, please give me a hand.”

Mu Lin was an exceedingly nondescript existence within the crowd. He was surprised by the sudden attention and asked, “With what?”

“Moving the bodies...” Li Hao pointed at the corpses. “Throw them into the city!”

It would be a waste to leave them outside. Far better to throw them into the city so that the ground could absorb life energy and awaken more of the city. There were so many Nova corpses!

As for mysterious power... To be honest, there wasn’t much of a point in mysterious power from killing others. It wasn’t worth expending energy on. One Nova was at most ten thousand cubes, but one mysterious power stone was one thousand cubes. Ten stones were the equivalent of one Nova, which was just a regular sum used for cultivation. Additionally, one merit could be traded for them!

Thus, fighting tooth and nail to kill a Nova, and a late Nova at that, would result in only one point worth of mysterious power. No wonder nearly no powerhouses of this level killed people for the sake of mysterious power. It wasn’t worth it!

Li Hao hadn’t seen much of the world before and was so poor that he wasn’t even aware of mysterious power stones. Killing others for power had been a natural course of action then, but now he could be more generous.

Mu Lin looked at Hou Xiaochen, who looked at the young man and then at the city. After he inclined his head, Mu Lin swiftly picked up bodies and threw them into the city. They swiftly began melting when they hit the outer city and were absorbed by the ground. This was a city that devoured people!

No matter how many people died, the ground would be renewed before long and clear without a trace.

Hou Xiaochen looked at the petrified Violet Moon on the ground, then at Li Hao and Manager Yu. “Little Yu, I leave her to you.”

Manager Yu glanced at Violet Moon; she responded with a look of pleading. Yu Luocha seemed to be good friends with her mother. She wanted to live!

Yu Luocha knew Hou Xiaochen’s thoughts, so she looked at Li Hao. “You make the call!”

“Me?” Li Hao repeated with surprise. Me again? How interesting.

Since Orange Moon wasn’t here, that meant she was still chasing his teacher. Orange Moon had been a martial master back in the day, one of the thirty-six in fact. Known as Black Spider, she was either a late or peak Nova. Green Moon was a late Nova, so Black Spider was possibly peak Nova or even stronger.

As one of the thirty-six, she wouldn’t be weak. Could his teacher evade Orange Moon’s pursuit?