Star Gate

“There are a lot of Immortals in the world and quite a few Saints,” Li Hao sighed. “How is the senior to fight them if you are only an Apex? It’s better to take advantage of most being asleep and leave right now. You might not have this chance in the future.”

The little tree hesitated.

“My replica is outside…”

“A replica is just a replica. Its battle strength is run-of-the-mill and only rivals an Apex. How can it compare to the primary body?”

The little tree still hesitated. With the imperial palace right behind it, should it leave the ruins?

It wouldn’t have had these thoughts before, but when it came to Li Hao, there were plenty of opportunities with the young man. Just as he said, how could one safeguard a place without sufficient strength? The little tree’s thoughts were different from before.

“Do you still need rations though?” the little tree asked after a while. It’d created quite the harvest for Li Hao these days.

“That’s easy,” chuckled the young man. “I can pay some mysterious power stones to have Battle Heaven create the rations for me. Compared to General Pagoda, I feel closer to Senior Imperial Guard. I’ll take you instead of the general.”

Is that so? The little tree was gratified by the declaration. That seemed… rather nice.

“Then… the imperial palace…” The little tree would miss the place. “I’ll use father’s corpse to seal off the area. I’ll come back to the imperial palace one day.”

I’m only going out to grow stronger, so I can protect the palace better. I’m not going out to play and neglect my duties. Father, when I return after growing stronger, the palace will no longer suffer invaders!

It was too weak at present. Just as Li Hao said, anything surviving to present day were Immortals or Saints. How was an Apex to guard the imperial palace? Although the palace had been abandoned, the imperial majesty had been there once. No one was permitted to dirty its grounds! A variety of thoughts traveled through the little tree’s mind; it ultimately decided to go with Li Hao, despite its great reluctance.

The young man smiled. He was abducting more and more powerhouses from Silver Moon… no, he was bringing people out to strengthen themselves. There were more helpers by his side these days. But the key was still his own strength.

Would there be a need for this if I could fight Immortals and Saints on my own? He’d been so busy lately that there’d been no time to improve his cultivation. Although his battle strength improved through his comprehension of the auras and domain of the five elements, it still wasn’t satisfactory.

It’d been a dozen days since the Arcanus Ranking appeared, yet his strength had not improved by much since then. It was only after his teacher told him a bit about the personal domain that he improved. The amount of progress he showed after half a month was very little.

The key lies in the self! I can’t waste the remainder of this Water of Life. I have to use some on myself to improve my own cultivation…

Li Hao left some instructions with the little tree that he would take it with him when he left the province. The young man was starting to be concerned that he was taking too many people with him on this trip. Would his personal domain bear up beneath the strain?

There was Director General Wang in his new physical body, the little tree’s primary body, and the five auxiliary generals to be revived…

Granted, he wouldn’t need to have them by his side the entire time. He would only need to look after them for a bit, Director General Wang included.

……

Li Hao was a very busy young man. After he finished with the little tree, he raced toward the Silver Moon Army.

Within the barracks.

Huang Yu was rather surprised to see Li Hao. The young man had come by just a few days ago and even met Director General Zhao on his visit. What was this guy still doing here? Had he been here the entire time?

“Are you not busy lately?” Huang Yu couldn’t help himself. “How come you’re staying in Silver Moon?”

Was there no business to conduct in Skystar City? Didn’t they all say that the young man was moving against the Wind and Cloud Pavilion lately? Was he not taking action against that faction either?

“I need your help, Commander Yu.” Li Hao smiled.

“Who are you killing? The Wind and Cloud Pavilion?”

“No, the City of Supernaturals.”

“They’re tough to handle!” Huang Yu frowned solemnly. “They have the twelve ancient aristocracies in residence and nearly one hundred Arcanus. Lin Hongyu is formidable and each of the families has an ultimate weapon to call upon. I’m familiar with the situation at the City of Supernaturals, they won’t be an easy target. Creating too big a disturbance will also easily cause other factions to ally together and attack us in conjunction!

“There’s not much of a problem with you attacking the Wind and Cloud Pavilion because that’s a mysterious faction that everyone wishes for you to probe. Don’t always be taking action without thinking things through.”

“It’s not like I want to do so either,” Li Hao sighed.

“Then give up the notion!” Huang Yu declared.

“How can I?” Li Hao shook his head with resignation. “I’ve eradicated eleven of the families and all of the wandering cultivators. Lin Hongyu has surrendered and even the plant spirit behind her has sworn fealty. One million supernaturals are at hand, how am I supposed to give them up?”

“……” Huang Yu looked dumbly at him.

“I don’t want to take them on right now either, but I have no choice,” Li Hao sighed. “The Inspectorate has joined my side and Chen Zhongtian won’t leave me alone. He wants me to take over the Inspectorate as soon as possible.

“I didn’t have time to handle this before Lin Hongyu called for a cabinet meeting at the City of Supernaturals and killed everyone participating. She insists on giving me the city and wants me to send someone to take it over. I really don’t have anyone I can rely on, so I’m here to ask Commander Yu to hold down the fort for me at the City of Supernaturals in case the supernaturals riot.”

Huang Yu looked dumbly at him. The City of Supernaturals has surrendered? How come I don’t know anything about this? He’d somewhat anticipated the Inspectorate’s actions as he’d participated in the operation against the golden coconut. It would be very normal for Chen Zhongtian to surrender after that.

The City of Supernaturals, however, was completely unexpected! So he was to sit in residence at the city and oversee one million supernaturals? Huang Yu stared off into space.

“Commander Yu, Silver Moon cannot always focus on defense.” Li Hao frowned. “Isn’t keeping the enemy off home ground our goal? Even if all three hundred thousand Silver Moon soldiers become martial masters and elites, there is still greater merit in suppressing one million supernaturals…”

“Can it be… a conspiracy?” Huang Yu asked after a long moment.

“How can it be? We’re the ones who killed them and even killed five of their plant spirits…”

Huang Yu’s jaw sagged and he looked at Li Hao, murmuring to himself after a while, “Is Lin Hongyu crazy?”

Why would she surrender? She wasn’t weak and commanded nearly one hundred Arcanus under her banner. Why would such a faction surrender so easily and be completely brought to heel in three days? This was possibly the last thought on anyone’s mind.

“And why not?” Li Hao laughed. “I met her on the road a while ago and nearly killed her. She knows that she can’t fight me and smartly chose to surrender. Only fools resist to the end, right?”

Alright then!

Huang Yu admitted wordlessly. “There are others who can command the Silver Moon Army, so that isn’t a problem. But when considering Ole Zhao… Now that Kong Jie isn’t coming back, Hou Xiaochen is gone, Zhou Chuan is gone, if I go too…”

He was embarrassed by the situation. Was it appropriate for all of them to leave? They were supposed to be the four defenders of Silver Moon, everyone was supposed to guard their home! It’d only taken a few months for all of them to go. The older generation of martial masters had left, a batch of powerhouses had left, and now that he was leaving too…

Indeed, he’d decided to leave and suppress one million supernaturals to stabilize the world! To be honest, it was a much better use of his abilities than standing guard at Silver Moon. Huang Yu was well aware of how much trouble it would cause after one million supernaturals spread out across the land.

It was just… he felt bad when he thought of Ole Zhao.

Ole Zhao had made a lot of preparations in Silver Moon. What if… Li Hao exterminated all of the enemies in territories outside the province without needing those preparations? Wouldn’t Ole Zhao have gone to extraneous effort?

That’d be terrible!

But… it also seemed nice if war would never reach Silver Moon borders.

Various thoughts flitted through Huang Yu’s mind before he coughed, “Then… I’ll go to Ole Zhao and tell him all this?”

“No need!” Li Hao chuckled. “Just say that I’m going to move against the Wind and Cloud Pavilion lately and have Director General Zhao let you go.”

“Are you on guard against him?” Huang Yu asked after momentary silence.

“Not quite,” Li Hao responded after some consideration. “It’s the main city of the Zhaos behind him. I know that at least one city out of the eight main cities has betrayed us. I don’t know which one. Given his background, Director General Zhao automatically thinks that his family’s city hasn’t, just like I think Battle Heaven hasn’t. In that case, we should keep out of each other’s way.”

Huang Yu swallowed his response; Li Hao was right. Director General Zhao wouldn’t suspect his own family’s city, he would suspect Battle Heaven first. Thus, it was very normal for Li Hao to suspect the Zhao city as well.

“Mmhmm, I understand.” Huang Yu nodded after some thought.

“It’s best that Commander Yu understands.” Li Hao smiled. “I have no ill will toward Director General Zhao, but we must be cautious when it comes to resurrected ancient existences.”

“Naturally!” Huang Yu nodded. “Us modern people can respect and revere the ancients, but we cannot become their puppets. Otherwise… we will become the next New Martial and may soon disappear from this land.”

New Martial was very strong, but it was gone all the same.

“Then I won’t meet Director General Zhao, Commander Yu can tell him yourself. Additionally, select ten thousand elites to be outfitted for armor. They will be sheltered in the Lin family castle for now and potentially even inside the ruins. The plant spirit inside their ruin is very strong and can facilitate our cultivation. They will improve quickly and may become the key to us sweeping the central region in case of unexpected developments.”

“The disturbance caused by deploying ten thousand soldiers is too great.” Huang Yu’s expression changed slightly.

“It’s fine, I have a battle ship that can hold ten thousand. It can swiftly travel to a target destination and hide within a ruin. Let’s take advantage of no one paying attention to us…” Li Hao paused. “But it might attract attention if so many suddenly go missing from the Silver Moon Army.”

“That’s fine.” Huang Yu quickly came up with an appropriate excuse. “It’s happened before. Just say they’ve gone to eradicate pirates.”

“Very well!”

“Armor, did you say? What kind of armor?” Huang Yu asked with curiosity.

“Battle Heaven armor!”

Huang Yu sucked in a sharp breath. Holy hell! Where did the kid get ten thousand sets from? Had he cleaned out Battle Heaven?

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