Star Gate

Chapter 501: Cultivation, Promotion, Farewell (III)

Liu Long was strengthening his organs further in the distance. Everyone benefited from Li Hao’s enormous gains on the expedition. All of the Demon Hunters cultivated furiously.

Time passed day after day. Li Hao’s store of mysterious power and mysterious power stones depleted at a furious rate. He’d sat on more than two thousand pieces of stones before. He’d shoved in thirty energy stones for the Water of Life, a consumption equal to three hundred pieces of mysterious power stones. One piece was worth approximately two hundred eight cubes of power.

Due to the large number of people absorbing energy, he exhausted three hundred pieces over a few short days. That was almost seventy thousand cubes of power!

Panther siphoned off quite a bit, Liu Long and Wang Ming absorbed a great deal, leaving less for the martial masters. Most of it had gone to Li Hao. And yet, the young man’s body and organs weren’t that much strengthened. He was trying to see how much energy it would take for a lock to be saturated, but the results of his experiment told him that he’d thought of it in too simple of a way.

He absorbed roughly half of the seventy thousand cubes, so he took in more than thirty thousand cubes of mysterious power. And yet, his supernatural locks felt like bottomless pits! His organs and body had absorbed some power in the ancient city as well, reaching six thousand cubes each.

The past couple of days of furious absorption hadn’t increased that level by much, but he’d raised them to roughly seven thousand cubes each. Over this most immediate period of time, his body and organs had taken in less than ten thousand cubes. The remaining twenty thousand were absorbed by the supernatural lock—and not all of them, but just one.

Li Hao had paid special attention to the process and noticed that the lock of the heart took in all of the energy. It absorbed twenty thousand cubes by itself and was yet to be filled to saturation. That was incredible! And impossible!

Surely He Yong and the others didn’t need so many cubes to fill one lock! Li Hao could absorb so much energy because he could also call upon sword energy. If he lacked sword energy and still wanted his locks to absorb twenty thousand cubes... The task wouldn’t be complete until his next life!

Yuan Shuo couldn’t do it either. His heart summoned a spirit at one thousand cubes. If He Yong and the others had proceeded methodically down their path of cultivation, they would’ve reached saturation with numerous supernatural locks after twenty years. Could it be that all of their locks contained more than twenty thousand cubes?

No way, there must be something wrong here.

Three days had passed in the blink of an eye. Something must be amiss if not a single one of Li Hao’s locks had reached full capacity yet. Can it be tied to... potential?

The young man frowned. Perhaps it had something to do with his bloodline. A bloodline heritage meant that he possessed some abilities that other people didn’t. His body may be stronger than others, so he needed to absorb more mysterious power.

But... this is a bottomless pit. Who knows when I’ll fill it up?

And the key thing was, fusing energy into supernatural locks didn’t result in a noticeable improvement of his strength!

There was almost no improvement! This was a deal that was hardly worth it! It improved his foundations, alright, but at a hefty cost and with almost no increase to strength. What good were strong foundations then?

Li Hao sighed and decided to give up. This wouldn’t do! He needed to discuss this with his teacher, otherwise he could forget trying to build the five bridges. He needed to find a way to avoid this problem.

The more he thought about it, the more his head ached. The strength of a supernatural lock also resulted in another issue—the five auras melded into the five organs. His heart was so strong now, but his aura was the same as before. It was now too tightly locked into place. All of them would be nailed into the organs if this continued!

It would be the greatest joke if his auras proved unable to break out of the organs at the end of his cultivation! He would’ve strengthened the organs so greatly that they maintained a death grip on the auras. Nothing could emerge, he would’ve sealed off his own future!

Ten thousand at most... Li Hao estimated. He could infuse his locks with ten thousand cubes at most. His auras might be forever imprisoned if they were any stronger. That would be a thorny issue then! I wonder if the Mind Fruits that I traded for will be of any use for nurturing auras...

Just then, a voice traveled through the door. “Are you in here, Li Hao?”

The young man vanished on the spot.

......

Outside the cultivation room.

The sky was not yet fully bright. Mu Lin waited outside the door. He quickly smiled when the young man emerged. “Have you been cultivating during all this time?”

“Yes, Brother Second Mu.”

“I didn’t want to disturb you.” Mu Lin kept smiling and ignored the weird name that Li Hao referred to him by. “But today is when we leave. A deployment order has come from upstairs to transfer Director Hou to Skystar City! As his direct subordinates, the Silver Moon Guards will be going with him. I felt that I should give you a heads up because you and the Demon Hunters might be the only ones left here after today.”

Today?

Li Hao blinked, thinking back to an earlier conversation. They would leave after three days—so it was already the fourth! So fast! Well, that made sense since he’d spent some time absorbing thirty thousand cubes of mysterious power.

Various members of the Guards were packing up; some were falling into lines to move out. A general din rose from the barracks.

“Is everyone willing to go?” Li Hao frowned slightly. These were all Silver Moon denizens. Were they all willing to leave their home to travel with Hou Xiaochen?

“Of course!” Mu Lin laughed. “Director Hou treasures martial masters in an era where martial dao has declined. He brought us up step by step and now that his future is unknown after he travels to the dynasty’s capital... the Silver Moon will naturally follow in his footsteps! Schemes and plots may abound in Skystar City, but the director will be more at ease with us at his back.”

Li Hao was moved by the response. One could not think lightly of the Silver Moon Guards’ loyalty toward Hou Xiaochen. They were willing to follow the man thousands of kilometers away from their homes.

“Where’s Director Hou and the others?”

“At the Night Watcher headquarters. We’re going to convene with them in a moment and drive to Cloud River. We’ll be in Near River province after crossing the river, then drive to the North Sea province, then cross that sea. That will put us in the central region, where we can then drive to Skystar City.”

It was truly a journey of thousands of kilometers. If they traveled on foot, it would take several months to reach their destination even if they sped through several hundred kilometers a day. Skystar City was so far away. Frequently described as thousands of kilometers away, it was more accurate as ten thousand.

In the central region, one could drive approximately fifteen hundred kilometers a day if the roads were clear. They would reach Skystar City in roughly a week. And if one was rich enough, one could take the airplanes found exclusively in the central region. That was even faster, but there were so many Silver Moon Guards that they’d have to split up. Hou Xiaochen most likely wouldn’t choose this transportation method, so they would reach Skystar City after a week.

Having read many ancient tomes, Li Hao knew that there was a special type of high speed car that could reach two hundred fifty kilometers an hour and cover five thousand kilometers a day in the ancient civilization.

Modern day technology was far from that level. Excavating the ancient ruins uncovered some technologies for use, but modern products were still lesser in quality and far slower. It was only after the rise of the supernatural and their special techniques that quality of life improved. Otherwise, it was horses and buggies before them.

“Let’s go together,” Li Hao exhaled. “I’ll send you guys off and bid farewell to Director Hou.”

“That’s what I intended in coming to you.” Mu Lin grinned. “You’re the only troop staying out of the Silver Moon Guards and there’s too few of you. There should be some major personages attending Director Hou’s farewell. It would do you good to familiarize yourself with them. They might look after you in the days to come.

“What a pity that we’re leaving after just a few days as colleagues.” He’d wanted to explore more ruins with Li Hao. “Ah, yes, the boss seems to be looking for you. He failed an exploration of another ruin before and wanted to explore it with you. But you ran off quick and now this happened, so there probably won’t be a chance to do so. Boss will probably give you the ruins’ location so you can explore it yourself. But be careful, if even boss failed it... Well, you’re also pretty damn strong yourself, so nothing may happen to you.”

Having attended the last excavation, he’d personally witnessed Li Hao’s might when he cut down a Nova. Golden Spear may have failed, but Li Hao might not.

The young man didn’t say anything and walked out with Mu Lin. Someone fell in step behind them.

“I’ll go and send off Director Hou too,” Liu Long murmured. “Although I didn’t make a name for myself in the Night Watchers when I tried crossing over, it was with his approval that I could return to Silver City. That was how I continued to be the captain of the law enforcement team and formed the Demon Hunters...”

Thus, he felt that he should bid Hou Xiaochen farewell. Li Hao didn’t say anything. They followed Mu Lin to a car outside the complex.

Trucks were already waiting outside the complex—the one thousand strong Silver Moon Guards required twenty trucks. That was only for humans; storage rings held various armor and resources.

A person walked over—Golden Spear disciple and Kong Jie’s daughter, the girl named Kong Youyun. Li Hao wasn’t familiar with her as they hadn’t seen each other that many times.

“Centurion Li, the ranking officer is looking for you!” she said. A small car was parked in the front of the convoy. Li Hao thought for a bit, nodded, and followed her over.

Golden Spear sat in the car; he seemed much older after a few days. He’d seemed in his forties or fifties before, but now there was an air of the elderly about him.

Li Hao guessed that it might have something to do with the eruption shown by Earthturner Sword and the others.