Star Gate

“Damn it!” cursed the pavilion master. Li Hao was hounding them on the outside, they couldn’t leave the ruins, but neither did Li Hao dare take his actions one step further either. “Do you guys think that Li Hao will dare barge in?”

“Certainly not.” The Left Guardian shook his head. “There are plant spirits in nearly all of the ruins. Li Hao has visited other ruins before, so he’s aware of the dangers within. He won’t barge in unless he’s a fool!”

The pavilion master wasn’t willing to accept how the chips had fallen, that their grand entrance in the world proper had become a joke. He mentally calculated the likelihood of the brazen Li Hao actually bringing the fight into their headquarters.

“Do we have a way of luring Li Hao here?” He looked at a leader of the Eight Legions that’d just returned.

A pained expression crossed the leader’s face, but he quickly responded, “Li Hao is arrogant beyond belief, so there is a hope. But once we do that… the entrance will be completely exposed…”

“That doesn’t matter!” The pavilion master thought nothing of it. So what if the entrance was exposed?? He hated the annoying gnat that was Li Hao! It’d be most interesting if the young man dared come inside. “Go find a way to lure those people here. This seat will reward you heavily once they enter!”

“Understood, sir!” The leader didn’t dare say anything else. Although he felt the chances weren’t high, they could give it a try since the leader had said so.

……

At the same time.

Li Hao’s eyes emanated a faint light in the outside world. He looked to the four corners and brought his people on a sweep through all of them. He wasn’t in a rush to chase after the fleeing pavilion members. Instead, he killed all of the powerhouses hidden in the surroundings!

Whether it was scouts from a third party or more pavilion members, he killed everyone that was not one of his. He wanted to completely seal off information from leaving this place.

Silver Moon heavyweights prowled through the land and sky like falcons. Panther threaded through the forest, giving rise to the occasional agonized scream. With the dog present, no matter if one was hidden above or below, or even invisible, its keen nose sniffed them all out.

A group of people gradually convened beside a small mountain. A light danced in Li Hao’s eyes when he saw the balls of light. The people he wanted were here. Was this the entrance to the Wind and Cloud Pavilion?

“There are a lot of powerhouses around us,” Hou Xiaochen said. “The three great organizations have possibly sent people as well. Our targets are in the ruins, which are likely difficult to enter.”

This ruin was different from the ones they’d entered before. There was more than one plant spirit on guard and the situation inside was murky. Their opponents sent out a dozen Arcanus as their first move, which meant they might have even more powerhouses in store.

Everyone looked at Li Hao. How would the young man give up at this stage, especially with Director General Wang present?

“We continue!” He led the group to the entrance of the ruins without another word. They saw the convened Wind and Cloud Pavilion heavyweights before long.

One of the pavilion members walked out of the group with an unpleasant expression on their face. “Li Hao, the Wind and Cloud Pavilion has nothing to do with you. We did indeed give offense the day your Skystar Commander Office was established, but you’ve killed a lot of our Arcanus today. This is where the matter ends!

“The headquarters of the Wind and Cloud Pavilion stand behind us and there is an Apex level plant spirit inside. There are a dozen more Arcanus that have yet to take to the field as well. Do you insist on fighting us to the bitter end?” He cast a severe look at Li Hao.

The young man raised an eyebrow in response. An Apex-level plant spirit? How was that possible? One had to know that an astronomical amount of Water of Life was required to nurture so many Arcanus. That amount of resource would have to be produced by the strong, such as the Saint level. How would such a weak plant spirit produce so much?

He Yong and the others looked at each other with strange looks. Apex? Was that it? Why would they be afraid of that? So this Wind and Cloud Pavilion only had one plant spirit to their name. Did they think that their enemies knew nothing of the world?

The group was also rather puzzled. That weak? One had to know that they’d overestimated the pavilion’s strength when possible in preparation for this operation.

“Kill!” Li Hao furrowed his brows and let loose with a blow instead of saying anything!

His people charged with raging battle spirit. The Eight Legions retreated and watched as their people were struck down again.

“Retreat!” one of them howled. “We have an Apex plant spirit in residence, these people won’t dare venture in! Any who does so will die!”

Numerous heavyweights swiftly backed away.

“Remember to collect the entrance medallions…” someone grunted.

“We know!” The group of people rushed around in such a messy flurry of action that Li Hao continuously raised an eyebrow. Why were these people behaving like they were playacting?

As his people drew close, there were abruptly eight corpses left on the ground. The rest had retreated into the ring of light behind them and vanished from view. Inside the mountain cave, even He Yong couldn’t help but say, “Da fuck? These guys are luring us inside, aren’t they?”

First it was the mention of an Apex plant spirit, then it was the entrance medallions. It sounded like manufactured weakness no matter how he looked at it. If even He Yong could identify it, the others absolutely could as well.

The group looked at each other with nods. Plainly, these Eight Legion members wanted to lure them into the ruins. There must be a formidable force waiting for them inside. It might be very dangerous.

They picked up some of the entrance medallions—these likely permitted them entry to the ruins. Some ruins needed such tokens before letting people in.

So the Wind and Cloud Pavilion had even prepared entrance medallions for them. Li Hao couldn’t help but laugh. Did they think it was that easy to lure him in? But he was here to squash them at their roots, so this saved time and effort for him!

“Since they show us such hospitality… let’s take them up on it!” A massive shield appeared in Li Hao’s hands—the void shield. It was a military treasure designed to block Apex-level attacks. He didn’t wish to expose too much of his strength in the outside world, not to mention his movements were somewhat curtailed with a need to consider Director General Wang. How could he not set foot into the ruins when they’d prepared all this for him?

“Director General Wang, Black General, White General, you guys are the vanguard. Everyone, you have one mission when we’re inside—kill! Kill everyone you see, show absolutely no mercy!” Li Hao ordered. “Be careful, they may have numerous heavyweights. Killing the ones we just saw might be the precursor to a bigger battle. Don’t lose your lives here!”

Heads bobbed up and down through the group.

“Is your teacher not present?” Hong Yitang suddenly asked. They’d previously said that Yuan Shuo would be present for the attack on the Wind and Cloud Pavilion.

“He’s cultivating.” His teacher was a cocoon; there wasn’t enough time to wait for him to emerge from seclusion. With that, Li Hao deployed the massive shield, threw out the medallions, and charged with the three ancients as the vanguard!

……

In the upper air of the ruins.

The pavilion master frowned to see the Eight Legions retreat in bedraggled manner. These latter day trained fellows were not up to par. In his memories, the Eight Legions were elites that were the cream of the crop. They were nowhere as frail and incompetent as these! These qualities weren’t normally on display, but easily observable once battle began.

It made sense, in a way. These Eight Legions had come from the outside world and some underwent training at a young age. They’d almost never experienced battle. Clashing with the Skystar Commander Office might be their first battle ever for some of them.

“Will they come inside?” murmured the pavilion master. These useless lumps didn’t even know how to properly lure someone in! Success seemed difficult if he was to rely on them.

His eyes darted in a certain direction as these thoughts crossed his mind and the Central Guardian jerked her head up as well. “So they really have come inside…”

“Wait,” shouted the pavilion master when he saw that his people wanted to strike back. “The first ones inside are sure to be just the vanguard. Let them all in first before taking action!”

Growing joy seized him. So they’d really come?

Of course, the first batch to enter were just scouts. The rest of the group wouldn’t follow suit unless the level of danger wasn’t high.

“Hide yourselves,” the pavilion master quickly commanded. “Leave only the Eight Legions. Everyone else, move out!”

The pavilion members swiftly made themselves scarce.

“Pavilion master, will he be confident of his chances since he’s dared come inside?” the Central Guardian asked fretfully.

“He has a few plant spirit replicas at most!” sneered the man. “What else can he have apart from that? Those replicas are Apex at most. The storage rings can’t contain stronger level replicas at present!”

This wasn’t Li Hao’s headquarters, it was his. These people were coming from the outside world as guests; that limited their full strength.

“Is the guardian afraid?” The pavilion master frowned. “Have I kept all of you to today for the purposes of being afraid of some modern martial masters? Then what use do I have for you??”

He was rather displeased. The limit of the enemy’s strength stared at them in the face, but how much in resources had these people expended for him?

Several of the city’s plant spirits had fallen into slumber for these guys and the city’s resources were nearly exhausted. The three guardians didn’t say anything else. The pavilion master made sense and logically speaking, the most that their opponents could command were a few Apex-level plant spirit replicas. However, they were still ill at ease because Li Hao’s group was being entirely too bold.

They’d come charging straight into the ruins—were those of the Skystar Commander Office this idiotic? Or did they think a couple plant spirits were sufficient to take down the Wind and Cloud Pavilion?

As much as they didn’t understand their enemy, ripples traveled through the air. Those assembled could tell that the enemy truly had entered the ruins. The pavilion master’s eyes narrowed when a massive shield appeared. A void shield, how interesting.

He didn’t give the command to attack, surprising Director General Wang behind the shield. So they weren’t being greeted with an immediate salvo? That was a good thing!

“It looks like they’re waiting for us to go inside!”

“What an arrogant guy!” Li Hao laughed. The pavilion master thought he was cocky, but he thought the other thought entirely too much of himself! He didn’t even bother trying to stop them!

However, it also made sense since the Wind and Cloud Pavilion had gone to so much trouble to lure them inside. There would be hell to pay for in a moment!

etvolare’s Thoughts

So who’s the oriole here?