Star Gate

Chapter 520: Making His Name Known (I)

Li Hao quickly returned to the pirate ship. The battle on the decks had reached its climax. Pirates continuously died and Demon Hunter members went flying, their condition unknown when they landed in the sea.

But when Li Hao appeared, the pirates panicked. Where was their leader?

Sword light flashed through the air, a Solar attacking Liu Long was ripped to pieces. The light scintillated through another stroke. A second Solar yelled with alarm, but could not escape death!

“Run!” someone yelled so that the others knew what to do. Only when enough people got away could the speaker have a chance of escaping from the swordsman.

“Kill them all, don’t leave a single one alive!” Li Hao’s voice echoed through the void. Sword qi raced through the premises and cut through the air!

Sounds of flesh being punctured and minor explosions rang incessantly. Blood and flesh flew through the air!

There were already many pirates dead—pirates were the sort to find morale only in a winning fight. Even though their comrades were dead, they could still fight so long as it looked like they would win. But with only Li Hao’s reappearance and no sight of their leader, they lost their fighting spirit.

The battle was lost and it was time to flee for their lives! Large numbers of supernaturals peeled away from the battlefield. Li Hao stabbed them to death one after another, sometimes killing multiple supernaturals with one stroke. He killed at least one hundred supernaturals in the blink of an eye with his sword qi. They completely lacked the will to fight!

In contrast, morale swelled with the Demon Hunters and they all made their moves! More supernaturals were slaughtered after a heartbeat.

“I surrender, I surrender!” screamed a Sunflare on his knees. There wasn’t any sign of a supernatural’s dignity to be seen on his face, just fear and horror.

Many people looked at Li Hao...

“Kill!” He responded with one word and ran the supernatural through.

That doused the embers of hope for the other pirates. “We’re not going down without a fight!” someone roared. “Kill!”

“......” The person who roared immediately died to sword qi.

Li Hao was relentless as he raised his sword high. Even so, there were some supernaturals who vanished into the water. He didn’t care and stabbed his sword into the depths all the same. Blood boiled up in the churning waters. Where could they hide while they still possessed their balls of light?

Could they hide?

Even if they were strong enough to evade Li Hao’s pursuit, they couldn’t avoid Panther’s nose. The slaughter continued!

It went on for another six minutes, to where Li Hao’s hands were growing tired from killing so many. The vicinity was quiet—only heavy breathing sounded in people’s ears.

Corpses were strewn over the ship! The waters around it were dyed red. Only a few out of six hundred supernaturals had escaped, the rest had been killed. But could those who’d gotten away truly live to see another day?

Li Hao looked into the distance, seeing another ball of light abruptly extinguish without a sound. Good going, Panth! Despite being a dog, it seemed to maneuver well in the water. Even water supernaturals in the sea instantly fell to its claws and had their light snuffed out. Its nose was so keen that it rivaled Li Hao’s eyes.

The young man landed on the broken deck. This ship was of fine quality to still be intact after such a violent battle. Bodies were littered throughout the hold belowdecks. Faint sobs could be heard from it. Among the pile of corpses, there were a dozen women still alive. They shivered and cowered, only daring to sob in low voices.

Li Hao dismissed his armor to reveal his true face. “I am Li Hao, deputy director of the Silver Moon Night Watchers,” he announced in a solemn voice. “I am the ranking officer of the Silver Moon Guard. I am under orders to patrol the sea and eliminate the pirates! I am from the army!”

The women might not know what the Night Watchers or Silver Moon Guard was, but they should know the army.

However, these words made them shudder even more so. Li Hao’s eyes widened and his heart sank. Why was this? He seemed to understand something in this moment.

One of the trembling women looked at Li Hao and quickly ducked her head when she met his gaze. Her whole body shook. “Lord soldier... we... we don’t know anything... we didn’t see anything...”

The army brought them a more frightening feeling instead of security!

Li Hao knew that they were from a small town in Near River that’d been razed to the ground. Under those circumstances, not only were they not grateful or relieved at being rescued, but they were terrified and panicked instead!

Why!

Was it because the army wasn’t the least bit dignified or trustworthy? Was Near River in a worse state compared to Silver Moon? Had this world come to the state in which the people didn’t trust the army?

Li Hao thought of the Battle Heaven Army—this would have never been the case when that army took action, never!

“I am the leader of the Demon Hunters!” Li Hao looked at them. “I’ll take you back home. I know that your town has been razed, but perhaps there are survivors...”

“No... we don’t want to go back...” A sobbing woman knelt, her voice quavered with fear. “Don’t... don’t send us back, lord soldier. We... we want to live. I have a child... Going back... means we will die...”

Dazed, Li Hao stared at the woman. He didn’t know what to say.

“Near River is more... conservative,” Liu Long transmitted. “Even if some of their family members survived, these women will be killed if they go home.”

Li Hao started and looked at Liu Long.

“Not to mention, their town has been razed. If they return alive from the pirates, Near River might label them as traitors or pirate scouts. They can’t go back. If they do, they’ll be dead without a doubt. I saw some very young children below us. Some are still alive—perhaps their children are among them. Leader, we can’t take them back!”

Li Hao struggled to collect his thoughts. Why? He understood, but wished even more so that he didn’t. This should not be the case!

Near River was too incompetent to fend off the pirates, resulting in the loss of one of their towns and countless casualties. These women had been captured, violated, and now hung to life by a thread. Shouldn’t the province erupt with outrage and counterattack the pirates?

But now that Liu Long explained... he understood. Li Hao had thought that Silver Moon was one of the worst provinces in the world as the Night Watchers sent only one Sunflare when Silver City came under attack. At that time, he’d felt that the province’s supernatural system was trash!

But now that he looked at it...

Li Hao suddenly laughed at himself. So theirs was an era in which people raced to the bottom. Compared to their neighbors, Silver Moon was quite decent. The provincial government seemed to be doing quite well. There was someone to beat back the pirates, organization around the province’s supernaturals, agencies overseeing civilian life, and everything operating normally...

When he read the ancient books, the young man felt that Silver Moon was a pool of dead water and that day-to-day living was a humdrum affair. But now... while he’d never been to Near River, he suddenly felt that Silver Moon was much better.

How ludicrous!

Li Hao said nothing else and walked down into the lower decks filled with corpses. The bodies belonged to mundanes, supernaturals, martial masters, and... children. Many of them were devoid of organs.

The young man stood silently among the pile of corpses, silent and unmoving. What kind of forsaken era was this?! Humans killed each other and were brutal about it!

“Waaaaahhhh!” A piercing cry startled the young man.

He walked forward and saw some children shoved into a metal cage. They were very young, some still in their swaddling clothes. At the moment, they were crammed into the cage like they were goods for sale. Some of the children were dead, but many were alive.

Li Hao looked at them, seeing some of the older ones covering their mouths with wide-eyed looks of fear. A few of them were muffling the crying babies, as if deeply terrified of something.

Li Hao broke the metal bars of the cage. Upstairs, the terrified woman looked down at the sound. Some of them shook so violently that they could do nothing but stare at the soldiers in black armor. Legs too weak to stand, one of them started crawling to Li Hao!

“Lord... lord soldier... They are all children... Don’t eat them... eat me...” Her voice shook as she crawled over the pile of bodies, ignoring her fear and swiftly crawling toward the cage.

Li Hao bent down and picked up a bawling baby that’d been squeezed out of the crowded cage. The baby was so young, possibly just a few months old. It didn’t even have teeth yet and was so hungry that it suckled its own hand. The hand provided no food, so it started bawling again.

Some other women were crawling toward the cage and gasped, “Lord soldier... the children are hungry... they didn’t mean to disturb you...”

“I saved you and I’m a soldier, I’m protecting you.” Li Hao turned back, child in his hands and looking at the women with incomprehension. “Why are you so afraid of me?”

Shouldn’t you be grateful to me? I don’t mind, but do I really look that evil?

The women crawling over didn’t dare answer. One of them quickly took the baby from the young man’s hands and, ignoring Li Hao’s presence, undid her shirt to feed the ravenous child. Her milk was intermixed with blood as she’d crawled over the liquid to get here.

The tiny baby finally quieted down as it was being fed, but there seemed to be very little milk as the woman had suffered too much shock.

The children in the cage shook and trembled as well. Li Hao wanted to say something to them, but didn’t know what.

“Hong Qing, Liu Yan.” He looked behind him. “Female soldiers, take off your armor and come talk to them!”

He turned and left, emanating some sword energy around him. These people might all die without the energy as the sea winds were bitterly cold at night.

The Demon Hunters began cleaning up the battlefield and the female soldiers swiftly walked toward the survivors. The cowering women were startled to see Liu Yan and the others, but the fear and shock in their eyes seemed to abate somewhat.