Star Gate

Chapter 533: Stillness (IV)

The Silver Moon Guards barracks quieted down once more. Martial masters spent time with dao comprehension weapons or perceived the aura by themselves. A few supernaturals encircled Li Hao, absorbing the energy that he exuded, whether it was elemental energy, unattributed energy, or sometimes sword energy.

Panther sprawled next to the young man as usual, at times opening its mouth to eat its fill. It was very comfortable here, it didn’t want to leave at all. Although the ancient city could help it grow stronger, life was too awful there. It didn’t want to recall the terrible days inside the city. The only memory it recalled vividly was that the big turtle had extracted its blood for the beautiful purpose of activating its bloodline.

The dog never wanted to undergo another such experience. It’d almost died of pain. This current state was the kind of life that it pursued. Feasting at will and occasionally helping its human kill people, keeping its claws sharp. This was the kind of life it wanted.

......

Time passed as Li Hao stilled once more.

The central region.

Yuan Shuo had disappeared, but the central region did not quiet down. It rather felt like the calm before the storm when Hou Xiaochen entered the area with his Silver Moon Guards.

On the plains of the central region.

A train quickly navigated through the terrain. The Guards had taken over an entire train to escort Hou Xiaochen to his post. Manager Yu and the others were frowning at the moment; they looked up through the metal ceiling overhead. Someone was above them in full view!

Hou Xiaochen remained calm as could be, eating his breakfast as he admired the view out of the window and completely ignoring the people outside. He knew who they were. Manager Yu twitched to erupt in fury, but kept herself in check when she saw that the director didn’t say a word.

Three people hovered overhead—two young men and one young woman. They were very young!

One of them had a long blade on his back and looked down merrily. “Ole Hou keeps a low profile. We’ve been flying over them for a while, but he doesn’t pay any attention to us. Truth be told, I’m rather curious how strong he is and if he can fight Ole Huang.”

The other young man wielded a spear that emanated fire energy. His long hair blew in the wind and an aloof look filled his eyes. “He can ignore us if he wants. I can feel Golden Spear’s spear intent, however. I wonder how much strength this number one spear of the past still commands. I’d love to exchange a few moves!”

The cute, diminutive young woman widened her large, round eyes and giggled, “Why don’t... you go down for a try, Ole Spear?”

The latter flicked a glance at her and ignored her.

“What, don’t you dare?” she tittered.

“Shut up!” he snapped. Who was she making fun of!

None of the three were weak and they were just here to watch the show. They weren’t interested in causing trouble if the other side didn’t come out.

“Big Eyes, why don’t you go down and take Yu Luocha through her paces?” The young man with the blade grinned widely. “I hear she’s really strong and ranks in the top of the Silver Moon martial masters. Go get her!”

“......” Big Eyes ignored him. I’m not falling for that! She looked down with regret. “Forget it, we won’t fight since you two are scaredy-cats! I’m just curious if Hou Xiaochen will pick a fight with Ole Huang. Ole Huang’s pretty strong. Will the three of us beat him if we work together?”

“More or less!” Long Blade stroked his chin. “There’s a hope, at least! Ole Huang’s in metamorphosis and we’re all late Nova. Although there’s a peak Nova cultivation level separating us... he might not be able to take on the three of us together!”

“How about we try ambushing him?” Big Eyes blinked. “We’ll say Hou Xiaochen told us to do it and that we work for him now...”

“......” The two looked speechlessly at her. Are you even listening to yourself?

“Forget it, forget it,” Big Eyes giggled. “They’re too strong. I’ve heard of something, that the disciple of the Five Styles Demon King, Li Hao, is really flexing his muscles in Silver Moon. He killed a late Nova with one sword stroke and apparently no one is his match. Do we want to go have some fun with him?”

“Nah, Silver Moon’s not a good place. We can’t go at the moment!” Long Blade quickly shook his head. “It’s boring to watch Ole Hou and them fight each other. Why don’t we find something exciting for them?”

“Something exciting?” The two looked eagerly at Long Blade. What kind of exciting?

“Apparently, out of Ying Hongyue’s harem group, only Indigo Moon is left in the central region. If we find a chance to kill her, do you guys think Ying Hongyue will lose his mind and declare war on the Night Watchers?”

“......” The two stared open-mouthed at him.

“What are you guys looking at me this way for?” Long Blade grumbled. “What are you afraid of? Nothing happened when the little priest killed Yama’s grandson. Celestial’s too damned mysterious, while I know a thing or two about Red Moon. We should imitate Li Hao and hang Indigo Moon by the Night Watcher headquarters. Ying Hongyue won’t be able to look at himself in the mirror if he doesn’t lose his mind for revenge. That’s when things will get interesting. When Red Moon wages war on the Night Watchers... we might be able to completely take out the organization!”

The two sucked in sharp breaths. You’re... a little too bold there! You’re crazy!

“C’mon, let’s go round up some people!” Big Eyes nodded after some thought.

“......” Spear couldn’t help himself. “Let’s not, we’ve offended too many people already. We won’t have any place to go if the Night Watchers give up on us...”

“What are you afraid of!” Long Blade was completely nonchalant. “We’ll join another banner if the Night Watchers abandon us. If not, we’ll go to some of the local tyrants. And if that doesn’t work, we’ll just start our own thing and conquer the world. And if that still doesn’t work, then... let’s just run. Will we not be able to outrun them if we can’t outfight them?”

“......” Spear was rather resigned by the response. These two... Bah, forget it. They were friends, after all. “Fine, but that Indigo Moon might not appear.”

“Isn’t there still an Orange Moon?”

“She seems to have gone to the north...”

“Then forget it. We can also wait by the North Sea, she’ll be back sooner or later. We’ll hack her or jab her to death with one move when she shows up and hang her by the headquarter doors...” The three blustered loudly before they left. They still had their dignity to consider. Since Hou Xiaochen continued to ignore them, they would ignore him too! Hmph!

......

Inside the train compartment.

Hou Xiaochen raised his eyes for a look when he finished his last piece of dessert and smiled with a shake of his head. “Youngsters are so interesting!”

“If it wasn’t for the director’s instructions... I would teach them a lesson!” Yu Luocha snorted. How dare they fly overhead for such a long time! It was blatant provocation!

“They’re an interesting bunch, the Heaven Favored are fascinating,” Hou Xiaochen chuckled. “I’ve always wanted to study if those with naturally broken supernatural locks are trash or geniuses. I still haven’t figured it out.

“Is it that their potential doesn’t need to be restrained or is it that their potential is limited, and this is all they’ll ever amount to?

“This is all worthy of further study, but Silver Moon’s Heaven Favored were too arrogant at an early stage and completely wiped out after a few years. People like Yuan Shuo... were complete spendthrifts! They wasted the province’s potential!”

He shook his head with some pity. There were almost no Heaven Favored in Silver Moon now—whichever ones still existed were very weak. Some were born with only one lock broken. Did a connate Starlight even count as Heaven Favored?

The ones overhead had had at least three or even four broken at birth. They were natural Sunflares and Solars—true Heaven Favored.

Yu Luocha said nothing further, while Golden Spear spoke in a muffled voice. “I feel that they seem to have something like an aura within them. Director, what...”

“They probably learned some ancient arts,” Hou Xiaochen responded after some thought. “They don’t follow the path of the Silver Moon martial masters, it’s not that of ancient martial dao. It’s the ancient path of energy. Supernaturals aren’t really trash—don’t underestimate them. They just have a different system from us. The ancient path of energy was still very strong, and the records say that they almost overturned the entire ancient civilization when the two sides fought!

“It wasn’t until the rise of the ancient Human King that they were brought under control. That is evidence enough of how strong they were. It’s just that modern day supernaturals...” Hou Xiaochen thought for a bit. “They possess many deficiencies and are different from the path of energy.

“The path of energy springs from the body, but mysterious power cannot be fully integrated into the body to be used by the wielder. I’ve been curious about this problem and want to see if it’s been resolved after all these years...

“If it hasn’t, then the supernatural will never amount to anything. But if it has, that means existences above Nova have appeared!”

If mysterious power could be fully integrated into the body, that gave rise to the hope of breaking the next supernatural lock. Hou Xiaochen had come to the central region also to gain insights on how far this domain had developed. He knew where the martial masters stood, but there were too few supernaturals in Silver Moon as well as supernaturals. Perhaps there would be some results here.

“Above Nova?” Manager Yu thought for a bit. “We need to break two locks of the organs to reach beyond Nova. There should be those who’ve done so and operate under a state similar to sealed martial masters. But what the director means is thoroughly smashing them and diverting the energy inside for personal use, correct? The kind of existence above Nova that will not suffer from backlash in battle?”

“Mmhmm!” Hou Xiaochen nodded. “Also, the unique systems among the supernatural such as the wind, flight, and thunder attributes—their people are Novas if they break the four locks of the limbs. What if they move on to one of the five organs? Therefore, I’d like to see what true battle strength beyond Nova looks like.”

Golden Spear and Hao Lianchuan frowned. If there really were such existences, they would be a thorny problem. People like Hou Xiaochen had such strength if they unsealed themselves. If they didn’t, they were of the metamorphosis level.

Supernaturals did not have to worry about their organs exploding if they fully released their battle strength. Tempering the supernatural locks was actually what they sought. If this was the case, then even Hou Xiaochen might find himself in dire straits.

Hou Xiaochen said nothing more, instead thinking of those that’d been flying overhead. They were true geniuses of the central region. Were there equivalents for martial dao? He would certainly broaden his horizons this time. They were almost at Skystar City.