Star Gate

“Then I will lead the army to seal off the City of Supernaturals tomorrow at noon!” Huang Yu took a deep breath. “We will have a much easier time of things after removing the troublemakers from the streets. The remaining people won’t amount to much by themselves. If they can’t gather together. They won’t be able to raise any sort of fuss!”

“I’ll have to trouble the two of you then!” Li Hao nodded.

“Not at all, this is as we should do,” Lin Hongyu chuckled.

“If we can successfully resolve everything at the City of Supernaturals… City Lord Lin, are you interested in moving to Skystar City?” asked Li Hao.

“Eh?” Lin Hongyu blinked. Move to Skystar City? What for?

“How would you like to be the Skystar governor general?”

“……” Lin Hongyu was incredibly surprised. The governor general?

“Although we’ve eliminated the nine ministries and royal family, there are too many minor details to take care of after that. Silver Moon martial masters are mostly martial brutes—I am no exception! It would be ideal if the city lord is willing to take up residence in our stead.

“Sky Sword and some other seniors put you forward as the best candidate to oversee Skystar City…”

Lin Hongyu was quite astounded. Me? “Um…”

“Think about it. Your decision can wait until after we finish with the City of Supernaturals.”

“Alright then,” Lin Hongyu responded in a daze. There was a possibility for her to administer Skystar City? What an utter surprise!

……

Disturbances soon rippled through the City of Supernaturals.

“Oh my heavens… Water of Life??”

“Anyone who can gather one hundred new army recruits before 9am tomorrow will be bestowed the rank of centurion and awarded with one drop of Water of Life. This… is too simple, isn’t it?”

“Is the City of Supernaturals expanding its army?”

“It looks like the city really wants to take over the world! There’s only the city defenders in the army as of now,and not that many of them. I think there’s only five thousand…”

“Let’s go give it a try! There’s no requirements placed on the one hundred! That’s one entire drop of Water of Life! There wouldn’t have been a chance to touch this our whole lives if not for this opportunity! The various factions have a death grip on this resource. It costs fifty or sixty thousand mysterious power stones for one drop! We wouldn’t be able to afford a single drop even if we sold ourselves into slavery…”

The City of Supernaturals was being gripped by a maddened frenzy. Those quick to take action were already knocking on doors. One hundred people for one drop, ten thousand for one hundred drops!

There wouldn’t be any issue setting foot into Arcanus with these one hundred drops. Perhaps they would be more than a simple two element Arcanus! The one hundred drops would be theirs after three years. Where else would one gather one hundred drops of Water of Life in three years?

For these people, it was impossible to obtain so much Water of Life at their current stage no matter what faction they swore loyalty to.

And so, the City of Supernaturals erupted with hotblooded fervor.

All sorts of promises and benefits were on the table; a variety of recruitment tactics abounded. Some knew that they lacked the skill for such a venture, but the powerhouses offered generous gifts of mysterious power stones and vowed an assortment of boons.

Wandering cultivators who knew their future wasn’t particularly bright and didn’t have a chance of obtaining Water of Life joined the budding teams. They knew full well that their lives wouldn’t be as free in the army, but… at least there would be many advantages to their new situation.

The City of Supernaturals did seem poised to become a local overlord.

The city bustled with activity and was exceedingly raucous throughout the night. Fights even broke out over potential recruits. Some tried to pry people away from other factions, resulting in conflicts between both sides.

No one played nice when Water of Life was on the line. Those who dared interfere with others’ interests were outright killed.

Law and order was not reinforced on this night. To Li Hao and the others, these people were ambitious sorts and potential trouble. One dead was one less to worry about. All that mattered was that they didn’t create a massive disturbance.

……

After a very lively night, the second day.

Squawking teams streamed toward the inner city with no sign of decorum or procedure to be seen.

In the air over the city lord manor.

Li Hao and Lin Hongyu watched as teams converged from all sides. A rough count tallied fifty thousand people below. They were assembled in teams of varying sizes. The larger ones had one thousand people, the smaller had one hundred. Flags and pennants festooned the air to delineate the teams from each other.

“That’s certainly a lot of people!” Li Hao sighed. There were quite a number of people with certain tricks up their sleeve.

Even the young man wasn’t able to assemble a team of one thousand overnight if he couldn’t pull from the army. It was even harder considering a lot of those recruited were from wandering cultivators.

To be able to sift through a complete mess and corral a team of one thousand amid fierce competition overnight… No matter what methods were employed, the leaders were truly impressive. Even those with teams of one hundred had emerged from the pack of those squabbling for talent.

As expected, all sorts of characters abounded when the population was large enough.

Lin Hongyu’s proposal was easy and didn’t require any investment on their part to identify all of the troublemakers in the city. There might be more at large in the metropolis, but there was no need to be concerned about them!

Li Hao swept a sidelong glance at Lin Hongyu. Perhaps this hadn’t been a spur of the moment impulse. Maybe the city lord had wanted to do this a long time ago.

The City of Supernaturals certainly had plans to vie for supremacy all along. This might have been something she’d planned to do for a while.

“Make camp once you enter the inner city and retain discipline!” Lin Hongyu’s voice echoed in the air. “The City of Supernaturals wants elites, not a mob. Generals, control your troops! The centurions and ranking officers will present themselves at the city lord manor to receive your titles! Your troops will be entered into the ranks of the supernatural army.

“You will all be comrades in battle in the future! Do not make trouble now. Those who disturb military order will be executed without exception!”

Emotions ran high in the hearts of various ambitious characters in the teams. This was the city lord! Conferment of title, creation of a supernatural army. This was a wandering cultivator’s greatest opportunity to ascend to the heavens with one step!

The few with one thousand under their command blazed with pride and grinned broadly. It was only a matter of time before they set foot into Arcanus now! They wielded great power—if the City of Supernaturals eventually conquered the world, they would be a duke or a governor general, right?

The various leaders brimmed with high hopes, marching proudly at the head of a column of people as the Lin third elder and city defenders led them into the sacred city lord manor.

……

In the courtyard.

Dao Sword and the others could scarcely believe their eyes. So the ambitious wolves of the city… had been tricked here, just like that?

It’d been the same for the cabinet meeting before; the strongest in the metropolis had been lured to the inner city with none the wiser. That meeting wasn’t even over yet before another batch of troublemakers would be eliminated!

“So the sayings are right… Power and profit are unavoidable temptations that stand eternal. These guys possess both strength and brains if they’re able to assemble so many people so quickly. And yet, they’re still unable to avoid temptation!”

The vast City of Supernaturals would completely belong to another after today. Those left on its streets would be a motley assortment. They wouldn’t amount to anything.

The leaders postured proudly at the doors to the city lord manor. They followed the Lin third elder’s footsteps over the threshold with extreme excitement. However, they weren’t greeted with the anticipated attention from hordes of heavyweights. After all, everyone thought that the cabinet meeting was still ongoing. Perhaps the cabinet ministers had all been selected.

Instead, there were only a dozen people in the spacious courtyard and almost all of them were unfamiliar faces. The various leaders looked at each other. Who… were these people? What about the aristocratic heavyweights? The wandering cultivator powerhouses? Where had they all gone?

“Welcome, one and all!” Lin Hongyu appeared with a smile on her face.

The city lord!

This one, they recognized. So the city lord was here, but…

Li Hao then appeared next to Lin Hongyu. Some of the leaders jerked with shock as they’d seen Li Hao’s picture before. It was highly irregular to see the young man now! How was this possible?!

“You are all great talents!” Li Hao beamed radiantly. “All of you have gathered at least one hundred people after one night, with some gathering a thousand. And they’re all supernaturals! You truly have great potential! Since you’ve come… don’t think of leaving!”

“This is a trap!” someone yelled and took to the air, wanting to run.

A massive shield clapped down as chains sealed off the void. The strongest of them was but metamorphosis and the weakest just Sunflare. How could they run from Apex-level methods?

They’d daydreamed of an ostentatious conferment ceremony and bequeathment of endless favor. All of that melted away as despair. They were confined to the spot and those who could run faster had their legs broken. All of their mysterious power was beaten out of them!

Some people felt regret so deep that they had no words to describe their feelings! Who would’ve thought that the lap of luxury didn’t await them, but Li Hao!

Lin Hongyu had defected to Li Hao! Who could’ve fathomed that?? The mistress of one million supernaturals had surrendered without a fight! They wanted to ask her, “Why did you rebel, Your Majesty??”

They could conquer the world, but she threw all that away to bow to a boy wet behind the ears! No one would believe this!

We’re here to build an empire for you!!

Li Hao could not conceal his mirth. After he took down these guys and suppressed the fifty thousand randoms outside, there wouldn’t be anyone left in the city with the ability to cause trouble for him. He’d been fretting over how to handle these people, but now, it looked like Ole Hong’s dream of having one million supernaturals till the fields for him would soon come to fruition.

What would follow next was a determination of who should be executed and who could be spared. Those who died might even help him perfect his cultivation system. How wonderful was this!

Lin Hongyu was also smiling next to him. Many might find it a great pity that she’d offered up the City of Supernaturals on bended knee, that she was a fool. But once she thought of the downfall of the nine ministries and royal family, she felt that this might be the wisest decision she’d ever made.

Perhaps she would be able to do even better and fly even higher in the days to come.

Skystar City… was the heart of Skystar Dynasty.

etvolare’s Thoughts

I actually sympathize with the stunned citizens for a bit lol.