Star Gate

Numerous storage rings came into Li Hao’s hands. He was currently penniless, having given the last of his mysterious power stones to the two puppets for the fight. His greatest wealth was in Water of Life—more than ten thousand drops of it.

Hence, this time, it was Li Hao who made the greatest gains. Stellaris sparkled with light in his hands and emanated energy. It was full!

It was full for the first time since it’d come into the young man’s hands. It’d consumed countless Saint weapons and ultimate family weapons of varying levels in the slaughter. The sword had feasted in the plaza!

Li Hao scanned his new storage rings and smiled at his findings. There were mysterious power stones to be found, and many of them. One had to know that the powerhouses among the wandering cultivators and ancient aristocracies had nearly all been in attendance. They normally kept their mysterious power stones in their storage rings. There were at least fifty million at one glance—a very small amount considering there were a dozen notable families on the scene. For such a large family to have only several million stones in reserve… that was too few.

It was the result of these fellows randomly wasting stones lately to purchase sizable quantities of Water of Life. Li Hao didn’t make a detailed count, but there were at least one hundred drops in the storage rings.

That still wasn’t much. This was a very cheap resource to Li Hao. These people squandering their mysterious power stones had only served to benefit the plant spirits. What he could obtain for three thousand stones per drop, they had to spend fifty or sixty thousand…

“The plant spirits might know that something’s happened!” Deputy Zhou mentioned. “This place isn’t as isolated as the ruins, so they might know that their replica has perished.”

“So what?” Li Hao laughed. So they knew. They couldn’t come out to do anything about it. Not to mention, the heavyweights of the various families had been slaughtered down to the last. Even if there were more powerhouses left in the ruins, dared they emerge?

Of course, the young man needed to prevent news from leaking. All five supernatural characters disappeared with a grasp of his hand. This was the precise moment in which the plant spirits knew that their replicas were dead.

Li Hao left the mirror fragments in place and looked at Lin Hongyu. “Do you want to come with me to kill plant spirits or do you want to stay here to straighten out the city’s matters?”

“I follow the commander, of course!” Lin Hongyu intoned and turned around. “I leave this place in your hands, third elder. Coordinate with the city defenders if anyone comes to probe the plaza and eliminate them!”

Color drained from the third elder’s face. He looked at Lin Hongyu with apprehension and swallowed hard, saying with trepidation, “City lord… commander… I… I am afraid that I cannot rise to the occasion… that I will not handle the matter well…”

“City Lord Lin spared only you.” Li Hao looked at him with a smile. “You are a four element Arcanus at the end of the day. The strong are all dead. You should just return home to live out the rest of your days in peace if you cannot stabilize a situation such as this.”

The third elder turned even paler. “Don’t worry, commander, I will ensure that not a hint of anything escapes from the premises! If… there are people… who come… I will kill the weaklings… but the strong…”

He was worried that the other factions might send more representatives to investigate if Li Hao’s group left and the plaza remained sealed indefinitely.

“Don’t worry, third elder,” Lin Hongyu smiled. “There were nearly one hundred Arcanus in attendance—three to five days of fighting would be required for a victor to be determined. All the elder needs to do is occasionally exude some mysterious power ripples. Who would dare brashly investigate?”

There was nothing for it but for the third elder to nod, fear flooding his heart. He even had a fleeting impulse to run away when these people left… but quickly dismissed the notion. Li Hao was too terrifying! Where could the third elder seek shelter in this vast world?

He might be able to survive if he stayed here, but only death was in store if he fled the scene.

Li Hao smiled and summoned the domain of the five elements. “It’s time to go, senior. We need to go to your primary body!”

The redwood tree was rather resigned by the development, but quickly returned to the domain. The jujube tree swiftly landed amid horror and shock. These fellows… were too brutal! But damn if it didn’t feel good to eat like this! This was its first ever full meal. It’d been constantly starving under its partnership with Sky Sword. That had truly been the worst.

“Does City Lord Lin know where the ruin of each family is?”

“Of course,” smiled Lin Hongyu. “All of them are close by—there’s a reason why we chose this place for our inner city. It’s close to all twelve families, or it’d be an incredible hassle if any trouble developed.

“Their bases are usually built over their ruins. Even if they weren’t at first, continual movement eventually shifted their complexes over the ruins.”

“Then we’ll start with them!” Li Hao nodded slightly. He flung out a treasure—the earth driller.

The young man darted within, everyone else hot on his heels.

“An earth driller!” sighed the redwood. “I haven’t seen one for many years.” Its replica entered the mode of transport as well.

A map of the surface appeared in front of Li Hao. He knew where the Lin family estate was and immediately activated the earth driller. It consumed more than one hundred thousand stones to immediately disappear from sight.

……

The Lin family complex.

This was a compound shaped more like a small city. People bustled to and fro; it thrived with activity since only the strongest had gone to the City of Supernaturals. That didn’t mean that everyone from the family had gone. At the moment, the rest of the Lins were unaware of any changes in the meeting.

A hubbub of discussion buzzed over the small city. Everyone was discussing how the Lins would become a local overlord after the cabinet formation and seek to dominate the world. Their representatives were very strong.

Li Hao’s earth driller instantly appeared in the rear mountain of the Lin complex. There was someone on guard there—an Arcanus.

Lin Hongyu darted outward without needing Li Hao to say anything. She thrust her palm out and sent the person flying, heavily injured and vomiting blood. He was shell-shocked when he saw his attacker.

“I don’t want to kill you, second grandpa,” Lin Hongyu said softly. “Release the defenses and I’ll knock you unconscious so you can live.”

The old man’s expression shifted drastically.

“What, do you want to die?” The redwood tree manifested to a dumbfounded old man!

“Honored one…” White as a sheet, he released the supernatural defenses without further word, permitting the redwood tree’s core origin to seep through before fainting dead away.

“He’s one of the family members closer to me.” Lin Hongyu looked at Li Hao. “One of my supporters in the family.”

Li Hao inclined his head. This was still a poor showing. There were ten Arcanus in the Lin family apart from Lin Hongyu. Having only two supporters among them was a very low ratio.

The group quickly reached an entrance to a ruin. The redwood tree looked at Li Hao.

“Is this where you live, senior?” smiled the young man.

The redwood tree swayed.

“Then… shall we go inside?” Li Hao laughed.

“Be my guest!” Various thoughts ran through the redwood tree’s mind. Did Li Hao’s group really dare follow it inside? Its primary body was still immensely strong. It wouldn’t have been able to so quickly sever a new replica otherwise.

……

Li Hao wasn’t thinking that much at all. A towering redwood tree came into view after the group entered the ruins. It seemed to be a small town inside.

The young man didn’t recognize the tree, but Li Shengzhang did. “So you’re the guardian plant spirit here! No wonder you’re so strong.”

The redwood tree’s replica returned to its primary body and instantly learned of recent happenings. A feminine figure walked out from the trunk. She laughed when she heard the identification. “Greetings to the two imperial descendants! I have demonstrated to you quite a laughable sight.

“This place is one of the nine communication stations of Silver Moon.” Li Shengzhang turned to Li Hao. “This was the crux of communication for the territory back in our time, including the one for suits of armor used by the military. The military system used these stations at first before individually creating their own to prevent undesirable incidents.

“The nine communication stations covered all of Silver Moon. One could be in constant contact with any locale, no matter how far away.”

Li Hao nodded with understanding. The nine stations were all guarded by plant spirits. Some of them were built in isolated locales with only the plant spirit in residence. Hence, these plant spirits were very strong. The redwood tree was one of them.

There used to be more than one plant spirit holding down the fort here; only the redwood tree knew where the others were now. To still be alive and in possession of great strength, Li Hao and the others knew full well if the redwood tree had swallowed its brethren. They didn’t say anything, however, since this was the affairs of the ancient civilization.

The redwood tree didn’t mention any of this itself. There was a high tower in the little town behind it—the communication station.

“Would we be able to contact the main world if we repaired the nine stations?” Jiang Yingli suddenly asked. “We could, back in the day! We were even able to speak with the main world from Silver Moon territory.”

“There is no likely no hope of that.” The redwood swayed with a differing opinion. “Communication with the main world was facilitated through the communication station in the void. That one likely shattered when everything changed, and with the Star Gate closed, it’s impossible to reach the main world now…”

The two puppets were very disappointed by the answer.

“Do the two imperial descendants wish to return?” the redwood tree asked smoothly. “If there are powerhouses that can rip through the bulwark between worlds…”

Li Hao shook his head before Jiang Yingli had a chance to respond. “How is that possible? The dean at Evenround Martial is only a Saint level existence. With the departure of the principal, there are only a few Saints left at Evenround Martial and Battle Heaven. They add up to fewer than ten Saints altogether in Silver Moon. Of the other main cities, only the Zhaos are willing to support us. They don’t have many Saints either…”

The young man sighed and shook his head. “We won’t possibly rip through the bulwark with fewer than twenty Saints. The only possible way to return to the main world now is to reopen the Star Gate and be on guard against enemies possibly on the other side. We can only make our moves on this side!”

Fewer than twenty Saints! They couldn’t read the redwood’s expression, but the face on the tree trunk was surprised. “So that is the case! I thought we could simply open the Star Gate and leave this place to return to the main world!”

etvolare’s Thoughts

Anyone with me and think that the redwood tree is up to no good?