Star Gate

Chapter 496: The News Spreads in All Directions (IV)

At the same time, in a hotpot restaurant.

Yuan Shuo breathed in fragrance from his pot and slathered his mouth with grease as he ate. He took out an item from his pocket—a tiny jade pendant that had some characters floating on it. He didn’t pay much attention to the information scrolling at the beginning, but snorted coldly when he saw the last line.

Across from him, Jadelight Sword curiously fished pieces of meat out her pot. She found this method of eating quite novel. The woman asked curiously at seeing him snort, “What is it?”

“Nothing.” Yuan Shuo wiped off his mouth with a sneer. “The Seven Swords of Silver Moon are very arrogant!”

Jadelight looked wordlessly at him. Who are you talking about? She didn’t mind as the old man was certainly not talking about her. Starting a slaughter in the central region was only one of the reasons why she followed Yuan Shuo. Jadelight was more interested in the various changes that had taken place in the region. Their food and drink were different; she followed Yuan Shuo in partaking of various delicacies.

The old man was very bold as he sauntered around to enjoy delicious fare every time he killed someone. It almost made Jadelight feel that she’d wasted her life all these years, that she should’ve conducted herself as carefree and easily as Yuan Shuo.

Contrary to the picture of suffering under a bitter grudge that she’d imagined, Yuan Shuo quite enjoyed life. He lived in hotels, enjoyed fine dining, employed all sorts of identities at the drop of a hat, and was very convincing in everything he portrayed. He completely led Red Moon around by the nose.

Yuan Shuo picked up a piece of meat and munched on it. “That old witch Light Sword is still alive! I didn’t kill her back in the day because I felt that her method is unique and couldn’t bear for the martial world to lose her legacy. But she’s got some nerve to bully my disciple!

“How dare she bully Li Hao in Silver Moon!” A cold light glittered in his eyes. “Li Hao’s trained in martial dao for only a few days, but she’s an old thing who’s trained for several decades. How dare she interfere with the Five Styles discipline?! I’ll kill her sooner or later!”

It wasn’t hyperbole when he spoke of killing someone—he really would do so.

Jadelight glanced at him and lowered her head to continue eating. Light Sword had made a foolish decision! It was far better to issue a challenge to Yuan Shuo than to cause trouble for Li Hao. If one must, one could send one’s disciples to fight Li Hao. Despite being a killing fiend, Yuan Shuo was a stickler for the rules. He wouldn’t say anything about a scrap between the younger generation. But if Light Sword did the deed herself... there wouldn’t be a good ending in store for her.

Yuan Shuo quickly recovered his composure and continued eating. “On the other hand, the little monkey has some ability to his name, eh. He managed to kill a lot of people on this expedition—a ton of Novas are dead. He seems to be coming to the central region next.”

“Okay.”

“Let’s talk about happier things,” Yuan Shuo changed the topic with a chuckle as it suddenly felt like he was preaching to deaf ears. “Little brat Ying Hongyue should be in a panic losing Green Peacock and the others. I wonder what he’s thinking.”

“Do you think he’ll care with that personality of his?” Wu Hongshan wasn’t concerned. “He’s long past that period, but he’ll definitely take revenge. He’s got quite a vengeful streak to him.”

“That’s true.” Yuan Shuo laughed as he started eating again. “I’d like to go have some fun with Sky Sword. I wonder how strong he is now? Light Sword’s whereabouts are unknown, but Sky Sword is a known entity. What do you think about beating up Sky Sword?”

“......” Wu Hongshan couldn’t be bothered to respond. Do you think you can defeat Sky Sword? He could kill Novas with one stroke a few years ago, he’s terrifying! You should first make it through Black Widow’s hunt!

Yuan Shuo bent his head to his bowl without further word, feeling somewhat dejected. They’re coming straight at me! It seems like I’m not nearly as intimidating as before. If this was twenty years ago, they wouldn’t dare come directly at me even if they borrowed courage from elsewhere.

What a pity that his organs weren’t fully strengthened, that the melding of his fourth aura was just a little off the mark. Just you wait, you bastards! He wouldn’t return to Silver Moon just yet, he wouldn’t go back until he combined five auras together!

Li Hao seemed fine. I wonder if he’s improved at all? He could kill a peak Solar before, he can’t possibly have improved so quickly that he can kill Novas now, can he? There must be a reason for Light Sword seeking him out, and it certainly wasn’t to threaten Hou Xiaochen with the lad. It more likely involved the Xus; apparently, the old witch had joined their banner. Xu Feng had died in the ruins, hadn’t he? Some guy on the bullshit Divine Masters Ranking. Li Hao couldn’t be behind it, could he?

Countless thoughts flashed through Yuan Shuo’s mind, some of them unbelievable. A sense of urgency rose in his heart! This wouldn’t do! The saying of the pupil exceeding the master was just nonsense that he’d fed Li Hao. His student always had to be weaker than him, it’d be too humiliating otherwise!

......

News and gossip of the Battle Heaven ruins circulated madly. The entire dynasty discussed it so hotly that it overshadowed the unrest in the three northern provinces. As chaotic as the situation there was, it didn’t result in the loss of thousands of supernaturals and dozens of Novas in one battle. And when it came to ordinary people, no one cared no matter how many of them died.

More continued to suffer and die as the unrest continued, but nothing was as shocking as the death of a Nova.

......

In a small town.

The Demon Hunters listened to Liu Long summarize the situation in the ruins. After a long while, Hong Qing couldn’t help but blurt out, “Deputy Liu says that several immensely powerful sword cultivators appeared in the ruins on this expedition, and that Light Sword is the equivalent of peak Nova? My father was stronger than her among the Seven Swords...”

She sounded a bit jealous! So Light Sword could fight peak Novas now? My daddy was one of the Seven Swords of Silver Moon and ranked second among them! Jadelight Sword now followed Yuan Shuo in rampaging through the central region. Light Sword appeared on the scene in domineering fashion. Sky Sword dominated the central region. The others were dead. Out of those alive, her father was the worst out of the bunch. It... made for unpleasant hearing.

It felt awful! And stoked some jealousy. I thought my dad was amazing when he was a Solar, but now look at him. What’s a Solar worth? He can’t even fight the leader.

Liu Long suddenly found himself at a loss for words. The biggest shock to him on this trip was the eruption of power from Earthturner Sword and Southern Fist. And yet, he couldn’t speak of it because Li Hao was playing dumb and seemed determined to see the act through. There was nothing that Liu Long could say to refute Hong Qing’s words.

Seeing how envious and disgruntled the girl was, he really wanted to tell her that her father was incredible. He beat off a crowd of provincial officials by himself! What a pity that the man’s daughter was obvious of his feats and thought that her father was still an ordinary Solar.

Li Hao smiled as he flipped through an ancient book. “Martial Uncle Hong is pretty strong. It’s good to keep a low profile. People like Light Sword are too much in the limelight.”

“I wish my father was more in the limelight,” Hong Qing said enviously. “What a pity...”

Forget it, she was better off not saying anything!

“However, Light Sword is so shameless as to bully the weak! She’s a fellow Silver Moon martial master, but doesn’t follow the rules at all. Although my father is weaker than her, he often says that we need to conduct ourselves according to custom. If everyone disregarded the rules, the world would be a chaotic mess.”

Li Hao grinned and Liu Long couldn’t help but ask, “What does Swordmaster Hong usually do at the Sword Sect?”

He was suddenly very curious and wanted to learn more about Hong Yitang’s character. This was also a sign that Liu Long was tempted. It went without saying how strong the man once was, but that was all Liu Long knew about him. He wanted to know more about the man through the eyes of other people. One of the best venues was through his daughter and disciples. They happened to be everywhere here.

“What does he do?” Hong Qing blinked. “He doesn’t seem to do much. He usually teaches some martial dao, plants flowers and vegetables... Oh, and sometimes takes us out on missions. We accept the missions posted by the neighboring cities. Some of them come to us for help when harassed by supernaturals. The Night Watchers are too busy at times, which gives us a chance to earn some money to maintain our daily training regime.

“They sometimes give us some money and other resources. There’s a lot of people at the sect, so that’s a lot of mouths to feed.”

“Earn money?” Liu Long blinked.

“Yep.” Hong Qing nodded. “We have a lot of members and quite a few children to house, clothe, and feed. Father likes to wander around outside and brings back children when he sees they have no home to return to. This has created nearly one thousand members at the mountain.”

“But... you only have maybe forty martial masters and roughly the same equivalent of supernaturals. That’s not even one hundred superhumans.” Thirty martial masters from the Sword Sect had joined the Demon Hunters in one go! That left almost no martial masters at the sect apart from Hong Yitang. Even if there were, those who were yet to set foot into Slayer of Tens couldn’t count as martial masters.

“But we can feed ourselves now!” Hong Qing said excitedly. “And we’ve gained a lot from this mission, a lot more than we usually earn from the small missions around the neighboring towns! We can send back some of our salary when we’re paid next month. Father can pick up some more kids if he wants to then.”

Liu Long looked at her with sympathy, as did Li Hao. Was this the worst off martial second generation they’d seen thus far? She had a domineering father, but didn’t know about it. She had to earn money through minor missions to feed herself and even send money back home after leaving home to work. She wasn’t the only one, but all the Sword Sect martial masters seemed to undertake the same tasks. They were waiting for their monthly salary to be deposited and then sending money back to support Hong Yitang...

Damn, that sucked.