Star Gate

Chapter 523: Yuan Shuo’s Resentment (I)

“Yes.”

“I don’t know if that was him... he’s dead, anyhow.”

Kong Jie sucked in a sharp breath and suddenly thought of something. He looked at Panther; understanding dawned. Had the dog worked with the young man to bring down the enemy? This dog was quite strong, he’d watched it ambush Elder Crimson and kill the powerhouse.

“You... how... are you coming back like this?” Kong Jie recovered his calm after his initial surprise. It was one thing to kill the pirates, but to return in this manner... wasn’t that creating trouble for himself?

“These people’s cruelty is endless. They even eat their victims! I want to display their bodies as a warning to others! If the White Shark Raiders dare show their faces around here again, the Demon Hunters will naturally meet them in battle. If you are worried, Inspector General Kong, I will bear the responsibility for all of the consequences!”

“It’s not that... I mean you... Operating in this manner...” Kong Jie started and stopped in a fit of resignation. “You... forget it. You’re in a lot of trouble to begin with, so this bit more doesn’t matter. You better not set out to sail any longer, and don’t leave Silver Moon. Southern Ford is a port city and there are a lot of agents here from other factions. News of you killing Faceless Shark and Sea Shark will soon spread. They weren’t ordinary characters as they were both Novas, so you need to be careful...”

Li Hao didn’t care and called out, “There must be pirate scouts in this area! Tell White Shark that I, Li Hao, killed Faceless Shark and Sea Shark! Have him clean his neck and wait for me to behead him! Silver Moon is Li Hao territory and there’s no place for animals like these bandits!”

Kong Jie could barely restrain his eye rolls. You really don’t care about creating trouble for yourself, don’t you!

Li Hao, however, grinned. He’d thought things through in this moment, he really had. Why should I be afraid of trouble? I’m not at all! The more the merrier! He suddenly recalled records from ancient tomes that spoke of how the Human King had razed countless cities and killed endless enemies when he was a fourth rank cultivator.

Despite being surrounded by ninth rank enemies, he never fell in battle and narrowly escaped from death many times. The more he fought, the stronger he became before ultimately growing into the invincible powerhouse that was known throughout the ages.

He hadn’t been afraid of death even when the gap between him and his enemies was so great. I rival mid Novas now and the enemy has at most reached the metamorphosis level at the end of Nova. We’re in the same cultivation level, just late and peak Nova separate us. Why am I so afraid of them?

Let the storm rage a bit fiercer!

Sharp gasps abounded from the city as the mundanes or superhumans hiding in Southern Ford were immensely taken aback. Li Hao had killed two commanders of the White Shark Raiders? Didn’t that mean that Demon Sword could kill late Novas now?

That was impossible as it was too fast! It was shocking enough when he killed six Solars two days ago, not much time had passed since then!

Off to the side, Wang Ming was overcome with joy; he quickly thought of something else. “Set up a banquet and a celebration!” he roared. “We must celebrate the Demon Hunters and General Li!”

What a pity that he hadn’t been able to participate this time. He needed to make up for his absence and make sure that people knew he was still around! The vendors that he’d bought out for the day looked at each other with some fear and panic. However, they put together preparations soon enough.

Silver Moon nurtured a fierce culture. Although people were scared by the corpses in the distance, the provincial army was a decent enough institution that their reputation was passable. Added to that the circulating explanations that if the Silver Moon Guard hadn’t destroyed the White Shark Raiders, the pirates would’ve attacked Southern Ford last night... They put one more at ease.

Delicious fragrance soon drifted through the air; news also began to spread in all directions. The somewhat known Li Hao was famous overnight. News of Demon Sword Li Hao originated from Southern Ford and fanned out like wildfire. The leader of the Demon Hunters crossed a thousand kilometers last night to kill two Nova commanders and several hundred supernaturals of the White Shark Raiders!

......

On the beaches of Southern Ford.

A group of people dug into a delicious spread of food. Li Hao ate ravenously; no one made a sound. There were only sounds of people chewing and swallowing.

Wang Ming and Kong Jie tried to talk a few times, but ultimately didn’t say a word. The director of the local Night Watcher branch also wanted to break the ice a few times, but ultimately chose to stay silent.

“A toast to you, Inspector General Kong!” Li Hao suddenly raised his cup at Kong Jie.

The inspector general started. It was the young man who was strong! But surprisingly, Li Hao didn’t say a word apart from his initial explanation after he exited the ship. And now, he suddenly offered a toast.

No matter that Kong Jie was unparalleled and a dignified inspector general, making him two levels higher than Li Hao in the bureaucracy, he was flattered by the attention. Strange kid to suddenly want to toast me... Kong Jie almost suspected that he’d misheard.

“You and your compatriots keep Silver Moon safe in this rotten day and age.” His cup held high, Li Hao tossed the contents back with one gulp! “While my parents and friend died due to Silver Moon’s incompetence... The laws were laughable, the official authorities were incompetent. The supernatural creeps through our land and no one can keep the three great organizations in check...

“I hated the useless authorities of the province!” The young man chuckled self deprecatingly.

An awkward Kong Jie found himself at a loss, but Li Hao slammed his hand on the table and cried out, ‘“But in this rotten day and age, I found that I was still able to attend my studies, take revenge, have food on the table and a roof over my head, and join the Inspectorate... What a damned honor!”

Kong Jie couldn’t make out if this was sarcasm anymore. Was this sarcasm?

No! It would’ve been sarcasm before today, but now it was not. Prior to what Li Hao had just undergone, it was easy to jeer at official powerhouses for being incompetent and allowing the province to fall into a morass of awfulness. All they knew was to pretend weakness and not to clean up the three great organizations.

But today... the young man found that Silver Moon wasn’t that badly off in this horrendous age. The three northern provinces were such extreme examples of trash, as was the Near River neighboring them. The central region was equally the height of lousiness, especially compared to what they could be. They wouldn’t care if a major city was raised to the ground.

In contrast, Silver Moon was a paradise of happiness. At the very least, he was able to attend school and study after being orphaned. He could eat and drink his fill. Part of it was due to his inheritance, the other part was due to Silver City reducing his tuition.

It hadn’t felt that significant before—it really hadn’t! Li Hao only had resentment and hatred occupying his mind. Why didn’t these pieces of trash find out early on that it was Red Moon behind his parents’ death and eliminate the organization?!

But now that he looked at it... Mm, things were fine. Comparison was the thief of joy, or in this case, the backdrop of appreciation.

“I toast all of you!” Li Hao raised his cup at the director of the local Inspectorate. “As a junior and a rookie, I am also your new deputy director. I only have a few words to say. It is normal to be afraid of death. I’m afraid, everyone’s afraid, there’s no one who isn’t. But I only hope for everyone to accomplish one thing—do not be the first to run when the enemy comes. Do not be the first to surrender, do not be the first to break down...”

The middle-aged Sunflare director looked at Li Hao and drained his cup without another word. He said softly after the toast, “Don’t worry, Deputy Director Li! We are born and raised in Silver Moon. We may not be a strong people, but we are not to the point of fearing death and latching onto life at all costs. Martial masters rose from Silver Moon and we all carry sentiments of the martial world in our bones! The martial world might lack in all things, but the only thing it does not lack is hot bloodedness!”

This was the sacred land of martial dao and the martial world! Everyone born of Silver Moon grew up on stories of the martial world. Perhaps it’d become a thing of the past after the rise of the supernatural, but Yuan Shuo’s emergence and the reappearance of the Five Styles King meant that the martial world was back!

Twenty years of drifting along with the waves... Some of the veterans present recalled the martial world of twenty years ago. It had been a time of blood and gore, but also satisfaction of gratitude and revenge. Those of Silver Moon were not down for the count yet.

Kong Jie vaguely grasped Li Hao’s sentiment and looked at the young man again, then at the lone table of women and children not too far from them. He ended with a glance at the bodies hanging by the sails.

“Don’t worry, we’re not that guy in Near River!” He raised his cup at Li Hao. “He’s strong enough, but he’s just a dog with no fight in him and only knows to bark like mad!” Derision colored his voice. “His greatest mission is to seal off Silver Moon, not to move against the pirates. He might even be secretly backing the Sea Monster Raiders among the eight factions! Don’t compare us to Near River, that’d be looking down on us!”

He understood Li Hao’s meaning and heard the subtle undercurrents within. It looked like the young man had suffered from exposure to Near River.

“Other than small scuffles among our thirty-six cities over the years, have you ever seen civilians slaughtered on a mass scale in the province? We rose up in resistance when the Skystar Dynasty invaded two hundred years ago. It was only out of consideration of further invasion from Great Li that Silver Moon decided to capitulate and join Skystar. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been easy for the dynasty to capture Silver Moon.

“Skystar has always been wary of us and thus banned martial dao, but for what? They were forced to bring Silver Moon people against Silver Moon in the end. Unfortunately for them, the three commanders weren’t that docile. They were tasked to destroy the martial world, and while they did kill some martial masters, they only killed the ones who didn’t follow the rules!

“Your master is arrogant, domineering, and kills people in droves. But he stayed within the rules, so the three commanders didn’t move against him!” Kong Jie roared with laughter. “It’s a good idea to set Silver Moon against Silver Moon, but the dynasty doesn’t understand us or the martial world. At the end of the day, the Skystar Guards became the Silver Moon Guard. Apparently, the Steppe Prince who founded the Skystar Guards vomited three liters of blood and almost died from anger when he heard the outcome. He hates the three commanders!”

Li Hao flashed a smile and drank another cup of wine, finding the mixture of bitterness, spiciness, and sourness hard to describe.

“Inspector General Kong, I have a question that I’m not sure I should ask,” Li Hao continued without waiting for a response. “What do they want?”

“Hmm?”

“I ask what these people want!” Li Hao rumbled. “Don’t they have any other goals in mind other than dominating the world? The people suffer, bodies are strewn through the countryside and the dead float in the sea. People die of starvation everyday, is this what they want?

“Yes, there are no external enemies anymore or the Earth Dwellers that the ancient records speak of, but wasn’t it just as well when the nine ministries undertook their reforms? The royal family enjoyed special privilege, the nine ministries ruled the world. Why must they declare themselves sovereign of a certain direction when they have the strength to? What’s the point of that?”