Star Gate

Chapter 487: Departure (II)

“Are you still in contact with your mom? Will she save you if you send word?”

Incredibly nervous, Violet Moon still didn’t know how to respond. Li Hao looked at her for a while before saying, “Let’s just kill her!”

“......” Violet Moon blurted, “My mom will come save me if she knows I’m captured. She’ll pay any price!”

She understood now!

“Very well.” Li Hao grinned. “You can have her, Director Hou. Lock her up at the Night Watcher headquarters. What use would I have for her? Put her in the city and let all the soldiers take a turn slicing at her?”

He looked at Yuan Xingwu not far in the distance. “I’m not too familiar with the Skystar Troops, so I don’t know the name of Yuan Xingwu either. My teacher has never mentioned him. But since you guys are acquainted with each other, you decide! As it’s official authority business, I don’t have the right to say much since I’m only a chief commissioner.”

He wasn’t going to get dragged into this! What am I supposed to say? That he can live? I’m not saying that!

Hou Xiaochen was skilled at selling favors to others and wanted to create a situation that put Li Hao in his debt. Li Hao refused to take the bait as he wasn’t familiar with Yuan Xingwu. Not to mention, there was Hu Dingfang from the military present as well.

As expected, Hu Dingfang hastily interjected, “Director Hou, Yuan Xingwu is... Yuan Shuo’s first disciple and Yuhua’s senior brother. He’s always supported the Silver Moon military...”

He was familiar with Yuan Xingwu. Not only that, but they exchanged communication with each other on a regular basis. One was in Silver Moon, the other in Skystar City. One was in the borderlands and the other in the central hub. They found support in each other.

It was a complex network of connections that supported Hu Dingfang. The Bai family had helped him to his position, as had Huang Yu and the Skystar Troops. However, Hu Dingfang knew that the most reliable was Yuan Xingwu. The latter was on very good terms with Chen Yuhua. The Bais helped him for their own benefit and Huang Yu was purely showing him face. The man also wanted to suppress the Bais somewhat. Thus, Hu Dingfang had no choice but to beg for mercy on Yuan Xingwu’s behalf!

“My apologies, Director Hou,” Yuan Xingwu finally said. “It wasn’t that I was unwilling to take a stand, but that I knew it was useless to do so. It would only interfere with your plans. I come for several reasons this time—obtaining treasure is just one of them. The most important is that I represent the Ministry of Armed Forces to discuss partnership with Silver Moon, and to determine everyone’s strength. Since Silver Moon is so strong, our partnership can be moved forward...”

“You? You are too weak and lack the qualifications to talk to me,” Hou Xiaochen laughed.

“Yes, I know.” Yuan Xingwu wasn’t surprised by the reaction. “The ministry sent me for many other reasons as well. First, I am from Silver Moon. Second, my master is the Five Styles King. That title still holds weight in the martial world. Third, I am familiar with Dingfang and thus can speak to Commander Yu. Fourth, the ministry knows that Li Hao serves the Night Watchers and is my junior brother.

“I simply didn’t anticipate that Silver Moon’s martial world would still be so formidable! The brothers I’ve brought with me have fought by my side for many years. They will not divulge a secret. If you are interested, Director Hou, I can relay some messages even if I can do nothing else.”

Li Hao listened quietly in the distance. He didn’t care if Yuan Xingwu was really here on behalf of the Ministry of Armed Forces to discuss a partnership or to search for treasure. Perhaps he was even here to act against Hou Xiaochen. Whatever it was, it had nothing to do with the young man.

All he did was watch as Mu Lin threw bodies over; he occasionally extracted some special energy, such as Celestial’s dark attribute. He didn’t lack for energy of the five elements anymore, but didn’t have much of the unique attributes.

Li Hao then inspected the storage rings that Panther delivered and conducted a simple cleanup. The dog had grabbed the Celestial delegation’s origin weapon, which meant Li Hao now owned five.

Kong Jie claimed the Parity King’s little house and Avici Iron Net. Hou Xiaochen took Blue Moon and Green Moon’s origin weapons. Qi Gang collected the Lu youngster’s origin weapon, and Li Hao didn’t care enough to ask if he would be giving it to Hou Xiaochen.

The young man thoroughly looked over the storage rings in his hands. He now had forty of these items that only Solars and Novas were equipped with. He’d gained quite a lot on this trip! He focused his attention on the energy rings and mysterious power stones. At the moment, he possessed eight hundred stones! That was a horrifying sum!

One had to know that he hadn’t claimed many of the storage rings from the premier powerhouses. Just the wealth from the various Solars he’d killed and this last battle had resulted in eight hundred stones! Combined with more than one hundred stones from before, this meant he possessed one thousand stones total.

This was just in terms of ordinary mysterious power stones. He’d obtained forty-six from Military Supplies and still held his original ration of ten. Those were high level stones that were the equivalent of five hundred sixty regular mysterious power stones.

Therefore, Li Hao currently had 1560 mysterious power stones, five origin weapons, and more cubes of mysterious power than he could count. He had energy rings by the handful and almost all of their capacity was one thousand cubes. There was no need for the rings to hold more as Novas cultivated with stones, very rarely mysterious power.

Li Hao currently possessed roughly two hundred energy rings that made for a total capacity of two hundred thousand cubes. He’d used some, leaving more than one hundred and fifty thousand cubes left.

This was insane riches!

Li Hao transferred all of the items to his storage ring. He didn’t care about those outside and moved all of the stones and energy rings to the largest storage ring—it’d belonged to Xu Feng. Being a young master of the Xus, his storage ring was impressive, despite his mediocre strength. Regular storage rings were the size of coffins, but the space inside Xu Feng’s was the size of a house.

Apart from mysterious power stones and mysterious power, Li Hao found a few more secret tomes. He didn’t have time to take a look at them and shoved them all into the storage ring. He also found multiple blood pearls in different storage rings. Plainly, people were secretly killing Red Moon powerhouses.

The Seven Moons that Red Moon had sent to the ruins weren’t equipped with scarlet shadows. There’d been some on the Nova level elder, but unfortunately, the Gold Armor had smashed the shadow to pieces along with the elder. Hou Xiaochen might have collected the ones with the Solars. Li Hao didn’t see any sight of them.

After taking inventory of his war spoils, Li Hao found some other treasures held in various bottles and flasks. He didn’t know what they were and was in no hurry to open them. Such were the items in Xu Feng’s storage ring.

The young man also possessed a petal of the Goldensky Lotus and a lotus seed. Those were treasures that he’d obtained at Ash Mountain. Li Hao then took stock of his merits. The Nova that he’d just killed gave him another ten points.

“Troop Leader Li Hao of the Twelfth Troop in the Ninth Division courageously met the enemy in battle and destroyed them outside the city,” the mechanical voice sounded by Li Hao’s ear. “His achievements are exemplary in his leadership of the Twelfth Troop to withstand invaders. He is awarded one hundred points!”

“......” Li Hao blinked. This was likely his highest singular instance of earning merits. Plainly, the city felt that he was responsible for destroying the enemy outside the city. Although he wasn’t the main contributor, it had been under the agreement that he’d reached with the other side.

He’d been awarded one hundred points, and that wasn’t all!

“Troop Leader Li Hao of the Twelfth Troop has supplied life energy with which to reawaken the city. His deeds are commendable and hereby awarded with one hundred points!”

Li Hao’s merits abruptly reached two hundred and ten points in the blink of an eye, this time because he had someone throw bodies into the city! He looked back to see that the three Silver Armors were still there, but there was no sign of Director General Wang and the commander. Li Hao suspected that he was so rewarded because those two had seen his deeds. Who would’ve thought that a careless thought would result in one hundred points?

These points could be traded for one hundred high level stones, the equivalent of one thousand regular stones! That was more valuable than the dozens of storage rings he’d obtained!

He was making out like a bandit and couldn’t help the grin that stretched from ear to ear. Two hundred and ten merits! Too bad there’s no announcement about doubling them... Li Hao was slightly regretful.

He swept a glance over He Yong and Hong Yitang, those two had received significant gains as well. One had fifty, the other seventy—Hong Yitang. It looked like they’d been rewarded for some valor as they hadn’t killed seven Novas.

He Yong was smiling happily when Li Hao suddenly transmitted, “Martial Uncle He Yong obtained a lot of merits, didn’t you? Then the ten I lent you before...”

The smile dropped from He Yong’s face. What the heck? How did that turn into a loan? Didn’t you say that was the reward I received for protecting you? The Supervisory Guard approved it, which means it’s set in stone. I’m not giving anything to you!

He’d finally accumulated fifty points and wasn\'t about to lose any to Li Hao.

The young man laughed and didn’t mind He Yong’s derisive snort. Hou Xiaochen and Yuan Xingwu seemed to have reached an agreement elsewhere; the young man didn’t care.

“Manager Yu, you have a key right? The key is Battle Heaven’s token and needs to be returned. Why don’t you give the key to me?”

Yu Luocha blinked and looked at Hou Xiaochen. The man smiled meaningfully. “The keys are awarded based on individual skill. I wasn’t aware they would be taken back.”

Li Hao needed the item. One could join the army only with the key, or else one had to go through the new recruit training. However, that part of the barracks was yet to be activated again. He needed the key as he wanted Liu Long to join the army. As for Manager Yu and the others... he didn’t want them in his troop.