Star Gate

Chapter 678: The Hour Arrives (II)

Yu Ming bobbed his head up and down to indicate that he heard his sister, but also said softly, “I just pity the granny who sells sweet potatoes. It’s almost winter and the winds are piercingly cold. She doesn’t sell that many and has two grandchildren to feed. Her son was caught in the supernatural war when traveling for business a few years ago and died. Her daughter-in-law’s run off, so she supports the entire family through selling sweet potatoes.”

Yu Qi bore a mulish curve to her lips, but thought about matters after hearing her brother’s response. “Then... you’re not allowed to buy sweet potatoes everyday. You can buy one every three days!” She suddenly added, “If... if Commander Li kills those people tomorrow, you can buy one as well!”

Yu Ming nodded with a smile. “Big sis,” he whispered, “You’ve gone to school before. Do you know why everyone is so happy?”

“How would I know?” Yu Qi rolled her eyes, but lowered her voice with some glee. “Because someone dares to sentence and kill nobles! The nobles suppress us and cut off our path forward, wanting to put out our light. Someone is here to break through that layer and pierce through their monopoly...”

She sighed as she looked at her brother. “Honestly... I know that there’s no hope, that this is just a start. But this is worth being happy for. Look, he didn’t run away!”

Yu Ming nodded and said softly, “But since he didn’t run, he’s going to die.”

Yu Qi’s body stiffened and tears welled up in her eyes. Not running means he’s going to die. The words stuck in her throat like fish bones, filling her with unspeakable sorrow. She seemed to see fresh blood splattered over the ground, Li Hao’s corpse being hoisted into the air, his eyes full of grief...

Yu Qi violently shook the images out of her head and smacked the back of Yu Ming’s head.

“Don’t you speak nonsense!” Her voice was so shrill that it scared the surrounding kids into looking their way.

Yu Ming clutched his head and didn’t dare make a sound.

“What are you lot looking at?!” Yu Qi blustered when she saw the others look at them. “I’ll beat you guys up too if you keep looking at us!”

No one dared say anything and muttered to each other in voices that they thought were too quiet for Yu Qi to hear, “Sis Yu Qi is being so mean it’s like she’s a noble!”

“Pfft, why would a noble live here with us...”

“That’s true!”

“......”

Yu Qi said nothing further and rubbed her brother’s head comfortingly. “Don’t say such unlucky things next time!” she complained.

Yu Ming quickly nodded, cowed after his sister hit him. He wouldn’t dare say anything like that anymore.

Yu Qi rubbed her brother’s head while looking in a certain direction. He... wouldn’t die tomorrow, would he? She could only keep the thought to herself as she didn’t know who to ask.

......

The Night Watcher headquarters.

Li Hao didn’t care what outsiders thought. He wasn’t that grandiose of thinking or that heroic. Everything he did today was purely because he wished to, for martial dao, and because he couldn’t bear to continue standing aside.

Bringing deliverance to the people?

This wasn’t part of his considerations at the moment. He knew that was too far away from him and too hard. He was just a martial blockhead, he was no creator of a new era. There were too many things that he couldn’t do. The only thing that he could do was to raise this sword and cut down all matters that were unfair. He could do only that, despite the possibility that even more vile things might arise the next time the spring winds blew.

No one knew what he really wanted to do because Li Hao himself couldn’t say. He only knew that his blood still ran hot!

I am a martial master of the martial world and will pound down any bumps in the road! If no one else can do it or no other shovel can hack it, then I’ll do it!

At the moment, Hou Xiaochen sat across the table from him. Manager Yu was present off to the side, listening quietly. She was very solemn and quietly reverential, as if bearing witness to something. Perhaps... it was a transfer of power between two martial world leaders.

Li Hao and Hou Xiaochen, however, were not in that frame of mind. The young man took out the official seal that Little Ye had just brought over. She’d been very excited, but Li Hao didn’t say anything. He placed it in front of Hou Xiaochen.

The man looked at him, wanting to know what the young man wanted to say.

“Don’t do anything tomorrow, Director Hou!”

The man’s eyes widened.

“Of course, you can take action if there is room to maneuver,” Li Hao amended calmly. “If not, if I cannot kill them all or am powerless to achieve my goal, then what is the point of a few more dying with me?

“The Silver Moon Guards are still inside the city, so if all hope is lost and there are too many enemies, then the director should hunker down and bide your time. Our opportunity will come again once you return to Silver Moon!”

Hou Xiaochen quietly lifted his tea cup for a sip.

“I owe the director a favor that I do not wish to continue to stand.” Li Hao looked straight at him. “I would not be able to repay these debts—favors are the hardest to return. Everything I do is because I am of the martial world, but the director is not! Officials should be good officials, those of the martial world have our rules and customs. My master says that in the martial world, we kill whoever doesn’t listen to us. The same should not go for officials!”

Hou Xiaochen was still silent.

“This is an order from the Night Watchers!” Li Hao raised the official seal.

“You’re an interesting one, Li Hao,” Hou Xiaochen chuckled.

“There’s not much to it,” Li Hao laughed as well. “It’s just that there are still one thousand people in the Silver Moon Guards who are all Silver Moon martial masters. They are too weak. If there are no openings for them to take advantage of tomorrow, why have them go to their deaths? They can fight again another day if they are of the mind to. Martial masters will not die so long as the martial world stands!”

Hou Xiaochen grinned and took a long look at Li Hao. “When do you think such a space to maneuver around in will form?”

“When I behead them, hang their heads on the city gates, when Arcanus fear me and the nine ministries give way... that is when the director can come fight!”

“Pfft, then there will be nothing for me to do then.”

“That’s hard to say.”

Hou Xiaochen laughed and furrowed his brows at the young man. He searched his thoughts for something before asking, “Something... seems... different about you... There have been some changes. Why? Has your strength improved?”

He was baffled as Li Hao gave him a peculiar feeling. The young man seemed to be a raging thunderstorm, but also gale winds whipping up the waves. It was hard to articulate.

Li Hao remained fully clad in armor, he didn’t dismiss it. He smiled at the question. “You have good eyes, director. How would I be so cocky without some improvement? For martial masters, strength is our foundation!”

Hou Xiaochen mused over his response and looked at the young man again. “Don’t pull too much from the mysterious power stones. Being unable to digest an excess of energy isn’t a good thing either.”

He could vaguely sense a kind of mysterious power leaking from Li Hao, but didn’t think further on it—for no reason other than it was impossible. Someone who’d reached the young man’s level would not break his supernatural locks. His future potential was unparalleled. He might be the first martial master in their era to fully match an Arcanus through martial strength alone.

He didn’t need a transition or recovery period; he was an Arcanus martial master in the true meaning of the term. Would such a martial master destroy his own future?

A lack of energy from the five elements prevented Hou Xiaochen from going down a deeper mental path. He simply thought that Li Hao had absorbed too much from mysterious power stones in his haste for results, resulting in the accumulation of energy in his body.

“I won’t, don’t worry,” Li Hao chuckled and nodded. “Then we’ve agreed, director. You should give up the fight if it looks lost. I’m not an idiot, I’ll run if failure is staring at me in the face. They won’t catch me that easily, I have the Windchaser Boots.”

“Very well.” Hou Xiaochen nodded. As for how he truly thought, he was the only one who knew.

“Then I’ll return to the yard and see if that list of names is out yet.” Li Hao rose and left with the official seal. Manager Yu continued to look at him after he left.

Hou Xiaochen laughed softly. “Are you still looking at him?”

“Ah, director.” An awkward Manager Yu quickly recovered. “Li Hao said that tomorrow...”

“I’ll make my own judgment call,” Hou Xiaochen said softly. “He said his part, I’ll do mine. There are naturally arrangements in place for the Silver Moon Guards. Don’t worry.”

“Understood.”

“I’m worried that he’s too focused on quick results,” Hou Xiaochen raised again after some thought. “Yuan Shuo’s Summoner of Spirit path is not necessarily complete—Li Hao is leaking mysterious power. That’s not a good sign. It means he’s accumulated so much power that he can’t digest it all.”

Manager Yu’s eyes widened and she asked carefully, “Can he have... broken his supernatural locks?”

Hou Xiaochen thought for a bit and shook his head. “He shouldn’t have, there’s no need for that unless he breaks six of them. The increase to his power won’t be significant enough otherwise and mysterious power will devour his internal force instead. That will make his internal force rage out of control! I didn’t sense any power of the five elements, just some faint power of thunder and lightning.”

“That’s good!” Manager Yu heaved a sigh of relief. That was good. Just as Li Hao had said, he could still run away. There was no need to put everything on the line in Skystar City. If he really had run off to ascend as a supernatural, the manager would also find it an incredible pity.

“Li Hao has the Windchaser Boots and the sword of the Lis. He should stand a chance of escaping if the situation turns sour, right?”

“That’s correct.” Hou Xiaochen nodded again. He would nod even if the assumption was incorrect. As the nine ministries wanted to move against him, they would’ve taken this into consideration as well.

The Windchaser Boots could outrun metamorphoses, but not Arcanus.

Granted, he didn’t need to say that explicitly.