Star Gate

Chapter 666: Not Looking For Anything (I)

The world shook when the news spread. Li Hao’s latest actions were more reprehensible than his elimination of the Four Seas Company. This wasn’t just a matter of killing one hundred people. If he wanted to kill people, the various institutions wouldn’t mind it if he destroyed an entire city!

The strong had such privilege—he possessed that privilege now.

However, killing nobles—no matter how minor or major, no matter how many, and a public beheading at that, was an upheaval of class. That was exceedingly deplorable! This meant that the authority of the ruling echelon might be overturned! Everyone would know afterward that there was no difference between the emperor or a peasant committing a crime!

Before that, even though the royal family had retreated behind the curtains and the nine ministries formed, there was no such thing as sentencing nobles for their crimes. The Steadfast Duke’s brazen initiative to lob city annihilation missiles had only resulted in a demotion.

Hou Xiaochen had killed the Steadfast Duke’s younger brother in private, giving rise to rumors that circulated among the nobles. Where Li Hao was most terrifying was that he wanted to behead his victims in public!

......

The Avenues of the Nine Ministries.

Every ministry was packed with people. A crowd of aged nobles knelt on the ground, howling and wailing with outrage.

“We cannot let this northern savage publicly execute the descendants of various families! He can kill them all if he wants, but in private! He can use them to establish his authority if he wishes, but he cannot pass judgment on them and execute them in front of crowds!

“Minister, this is a subversion of authority and a sign of the dynasty toppling!” A grief-stricken old man presented a petition requesting that nobles could not be judged and sentenced in public. The world would be thrown into disarray!

Li Hao could kill people if he wanted to, but he couldn’t do so openly. It would be enough that everyone knew he killed a few of them in private. Whether it was out of intention to intimidate his enemies or to cut down some people against him, it didn’t matter.

But this time, the young man thoroughly encroached on their bottom line. When this happened, the nobles would no longer be able to maintain their dignity, authority, and privilege.

So it turned out that nobles could also be sentenced and die! Their heads weren’t prettier than the rest when they hit the ground. Li Hao was breaking through the blockades of the heart! The nobles themselves also knew that once this happened, everyone would realize that the ruling class could be overthrown!

It would pull down a wall in the hearts of the people, a barrier that they should not cross!

......

The Ministry of Finance.

Liu Yunqing had wanted to go into closed door cultivation, but opened his eyes when he heard the wailing outside. It came from more than one ministry—it originated from all nine. There were even people kneeling in front of the palace with petitions upheld.

Li Hao could not be permitted to succeed. The dynasty would be over otherwise!

A cold sneer appeared in the depths of Liu Yunqing’s eyes—a sarcastic bent. I’d thought that I’d need to wait for a very long time, but it seems that the other nine ministries will be regretting their actions today. They’ll see that they shouldn’t have permitted Li Hao to have his way yesterday!

Liu Yunqing leered and gave no reaction. He didn’t say a word or appear in front of the crowds. What did it have to do with him? No one said anything when the Ministry of Finance lost so many powerhouses, but now they were in a rush?

“I knew it, the kid wouldn’t rest easy after that. If he dares ignore royal power and act against us, then he’ll also dare turn this world upside down. Just wait and see!” Liu Yunqing snorted and chose to turn a blind eye.

Let the world wail itself to exhaustion, let those old men cry their eyes out!

......

The Inspectorate.

The inspector general didn’t seem as excited or happy today as he was yesterday. Sobs and shrieks echoed outside while Yellow Dragon raged inside.

“Inspector General, Li Hao is completely insane with this move! He wants to drag the Inspectorate and Night Watchers down with him! It’s one thing to destroy the Four Seas Company and Skystar Colosseum like he did yesterday, but now he wants to publicly execute one hundred nobles! He’s even arrested thousands of them! He’s... an absolute lunatic!

“I want to depose him from his position of Skystar vice commander. Didn’t he say that this was his right?!” Yellow Dragon shouted with veins bulging in his forehead. “Then I’ll remove that right from him! He will implicate the entire Inspectorate and Night Watchers when he slaughters innocents. He’s too selfish!”

Everyone was as quiet as could be; no one said a word. Even the inspector general was reserved—he would’ve censured Yellow Dragon in times before when the man raged like this. At this moment, he hesitated.

He knew that Li Hao’s group was unbridled and arrogant, but he truly hadn’t thought that Li Hao would choose to execute hundreds of nobles in public. This matter could be big, and it could be small. If it was big, this matter was a subversion of two hundred years of dynastic law and rule.

Revolution!

That was the term that came to the mind of the well-educated inspector general. Li Hao was conducting a revolution. He was bringing about the downfall of the bourgeois and privileged.

All of them, including the young man himself, were part of this social class. As a peacemaker commissioner and proposed-to-be deputy director of the Night Watchers, Li Hao himself was a noble. The royal family had also just made him the Skystar Duke.

Does the royal family regret their actions? The inspector general laughed. Perhaps they did. They wanted to use him to suppress the nine ministries, but the first thing he did was something that would make the royal family draw back in horror as well.

“Sir!” Yellow Dragon couldn’t help but chide when he saw his superior officer suddenly laugh. I’m talking here—are we removing him or not? Tell me outright. “You see it too, sir. Nobles are gathered at the doors of the nine ministries and royal palace. These people are the key to maintaining the dynasty’s operations. The nation will fall if anything happens to them!

“Li Hao isn’t using his brain at all!” Yellow Dragon frowned. “That’s exactly how brutes are. He doesn’t understand it’s not that the Night Watchers refuse to take action, but we cannot be so impetuous! We need to take things one step at a time. Once hearts shake from terror after the nobles are dead, it won’t be long before the entire dynasty collapses!”

Some agreed with his words, while others sighed, “That’s right. The Inspectorate wishes to go all out in improving ourselves and also wants to strictly enforce the law, but has Li Hao given thought to what he should do when he rocks the world with his actions?”

Despite benefitting from the young man’s actions before, the Inspectorate also found Li Hao’s radical methods to be inappropriate now.

“Inspector general, people will easily think that we’re secretly supporting Li Hao. Where else would he get the courage to do something like this?”

“His position of Skystar vice commander needs to be reconsidered. He won’t have the authority to conduct himself like this once he is removed!” There were those who approved of the young man’s actions, and those who disapproved. It was too difficult to truly accept responsibility for this.

“Ole Yao, what do you say?” the inspector general said slowly when he looked at the distracted Yao Si.

It was only then that Yao Si seemed to awake from his reverie with the big teacup. “What did you say?” he asked blearily.

The inspector general nearly rolled his eyes. “You’re the one who gave him the position of Skystar vice commander. The entire office of the Skystar commander is an internal Night Watcher contraption. It does not come under the Inspectorate umbrella. We approve of the principal appointment whereas you determine the secondary ones. So I ask you, how do you view Li Hao’s matter!”

He explained himself a bit more because he had a lot of thoughts in mind, but didn’t find any of them particularly appropriate. Otherwise, with his personality, he wouldn’t have asked Yao Si. Clearly, he had his doubts.

Do they continue?

Li Hao’s actions might bring a lot of authority to the Inspectorate and even help the institution fully find its footing to set its cap as the greatest ministry, but it also brought a lot of trouble down on the Inspectorate’s head!

He’d approved of and supported the young man before this. Though he didn’t say so openly, he promoted Li Hao while demoting the Steadfast Duke. Regardless of whether or not it was in pursuit of strengthening the Inspectorate, it bestowed support to Li Hao’s faction.

But now, he hesitated. This was a revolution, one that would cost him in his life!

Yao Si didn’t seem to be fully focused on the meeting at hand. “It’s just the execution of one hundred wrongdoers...” he responded in a rather... senile manner after a long moment. “So they die, what’s the matter when there are so many nobles?”

“It’s not just a matter of killing one hundred people,” Yellow Dragon immediately rebutted with dissatisfaction. “He can do so privately or for different reasons. Nothing will be a problem so long as he doesn’t openly execute them. It’s not like the dynasty lacks for nobles.

“Does the director not see things clearly in your old age or think that the matter doesn’t have to do with you? You shouldn’t have given him the position of Skystar vice commander! You also signed the order without saying anything! Why didn’t we have a meeting about it? I only learned after the fact that Li Hao had become vice commander!

“It’s clear to see that I didn’t think much about it.” Yao Si smiled and coughed gently. “Hou Xiaochen isn’t weak and he had someone send over a document. I’m old, is there a need to start a feud with him?”

“He’s just an outsider, you could’ve pushed it all to me, director,” Yellow Dragon snapped irritably. “What are you afraid of him for?”

Yao Si breathed out gently and looked around the gathering, ignoring Yellow Dragon’s impertinence. He whispered to the inspector general, “Do you want to remove Li Hao from his position? That can be done as well. However, the arrow is notched and we have finally increased our authority after so long. If we switch out Li Hao now, I’m afraid we’ll have even less dignity than before when the dust settles.

“Ole Huang makes sense,” the old man continued slowly. “But he also forgets that our current position comes from the Inspectorate and Night Watchers. If we remove Li Hao now, that also means we hand over the authority to enforce the law to someone else. We would be offering it up with both hands.”

Yao Si spoke softly without the intent to censor anyone. He simply rambled slowly.