Star Gate

Chapter 392: Luring the Snake Out of the Cave (II)

At the same time, the Breathing Method of the Five Styles was just as ridiculous as it was impressive. It consumed three mysterious power stones in the blink of an eye! That was the equivalent of a thousand cubes of mysterious power, no?

Only rich people could make use of this method!

The appearance of a first Sunderer was quickly followed by a second. The energy contained within three mysterious power stones was very dense. Continuous operation was sufficient to help these Slayers finish digesting their blood pearls.

The energy dissipated after twenty minutes—those who could make use of their gains had done so. Li Hao looked over at the Slayers. Of the twenty-nine martial masters, twenty were from the Sword Sect and nine from the Inspectorate. The difference hadn’t been apparent before he looked. Once he did, he saw that everyone from the sect had broken through.

That was terrifying. Only six of the nine Inspectorate martial masters had succeeded. Three had failed—or rather, they didn’t achieve the state of projecting their internal force. Those three were abjectly depressed for their failure.

They were the only ones to fail out of the twenty-nine martial masters and the opportunity had come at quite a price! One blood pearl and the energy from the mysterious powers meant the equivalent of consuming over one hundred cubes. And yet, they’d failed!

“Leader... we...” The three were beside themselves. Any thoughts they might’ve nursed before faded away, leaving only the notion that we are utter trash. They were older than the Sword Sect disciples on average, but all of the latter had advanced. One third of the Inspectorate nine had failed—that was too high a rate of failure. It was not three out of twenty-nine.

Wang Henggang’s nephew—Wang Chao—regarded the scene with a heavy expression. It was readily apparent the difference in caliber between the people from his uncle and the Sword Sect. Those from the Sword Sect all possessed high potential. Those from the Inspectorate were mediocre in comparison.

Li Hao didn’t mind much. That everyone from the Sword Sect had advanced made them stronger than expected, but caliber would not be apparent until half step Dominators grasped the aura. If they couldn’t, then there was no further discussion of martial potential needed.

“It’s no big deal—it’s not like you’re walking away empty-handed just because you didn’t break through. You’re one step away and might succeed by the morning!” Li Hao didn’t say much and turned to those who’d advanced. “There’s no need to be overly happy even though you’ve succeeded. We don’t have much time left, so hurry and familiarize yourself with your new strength. Have your captains teach you the formation...”

With that, he ignored everyone. The Demon Hunters stirred with activity as a flame lit in people’s hearts. The minor goal that Li Hao had mentioned last night was pretty much completed after one day. So it really was no major undertaking for everyone to ascend to Sunderer!

The three who’d failed received general comfort from the rest. They would just try again after this failure. With this time’s experience, attaining Sunderer next time would not be that difficult.

......

Li Hao breathed out gently when he walked out of the mountain valley and looked into the distance. There seemed to be a massive fissure in the distance, as lit by moonlight. The ground seemed to have split open—Rift Canyon, the geological feature that split north and south Silver Moon.

Liu Long quickly ambled over.

“Do you have any thoughts, chief?” Li Hao laughed softly.

“You’re too wasteful!” That was Liu Long’s chief consideration. The young man had quickly spent all of the blood pearls he collected and another three mysterious power stones. Although he’d also gained quite a bit of mysterious power, Li Hao received almost nothing from this battle. He poured everything back into the team.

“When they’re all stronger as Sunderers and know the formation, each minor team will be able to take on a Sunflare. Ten armored Sunderers to a formation and a late Sunderer as the center point means that each team will be able to kill a Sunflare!

“And thus the feedback cycle is formed. We kill enemies, grow stronger, and soon the Demon Hunters might bring me enough profits!” Li Hao chuckled. “I’ll invest some before they reach late Sunderer. When it comes time to comprehend the aura, there’s no need for further resource consumption if they can’t set foot into half step Dominator...”

“True.” Liu Long nodded. “When do we go back then?”

“When we can’t continue improving or when Red Moon is so alert that they start chasing us,” Li Hao laughed. “We’ll be moving out at night from now on. We’ll rest during the day and practice the formation.”

Liu Long left as he had no further questions, leaving the young man to look into the distance with anticipation. He’d brought out the Demon Hunters with some of his own goals in mind. He wanted to collect sufficient high level blood pearls—Solar at the very least. Nova... was out of his reach for now.

Mysterious power stones were another goal. Only Solars would have those. Thus, they must kill a few Solars this time. He didn’t really care about those below Solar. He might’ve viewed those gains as precious treasure a month ago, but now they were all inconsequential.

......

The sky brightened in the blink of an eye. September 16.

The battlefield of last night was long emptied. Wang Ming and the others had driven off in their sports car, heading for the next possible locale with powerhouses.

The Red Moon base was as quiet as usual. A figure in a ghosty mask appeared outside of it after an indeterminate period of time, making some sounds above ground. When no response was forthcoming, it darted beneath.

Hastily scrambling back out moments later, the figure fled the area. It was empty below the ground. It hadn’t noticed it at first, but there were clear signs of battle in the area. An accident had occurred and someone had discovered this stronghold!

......

Outside White Moon City.

The same manor.

There were a lot more people milling through it now as powerhouses from the north continued to gather in Silver Moon. There were quite a few Solars. As Blue Moon addressed them, the idle Violet Moon standing off to the side suddenly said, “I’ve just received a report that the base near Skywave Lake has just been destroyed. All of the members have gone missing and there are signs of battle at the scene with blood to be found!”

“There were a lot of people at that base, no?” Blue Moon furrowed his brows.

“Quite a few—four teams worth.”

Four teams meant forty supernaturals and four Sunflares. That set Blue Moon on edge, despite receiving aid from all nineteen northern provinces. “So many disappearing together? If I remember correctly, there was a peak Sunflare in residence there. They should be able to hold their own even against a Solar if they worked together!”

His heart ached at the thought of so many supernaturals dying all at once. Who’d done it?? Disappearing meant death, there was no need to harbor hopes of them coming back. That would not be happening.

“The Skywave Lake base wasn’t too far from Rift Canyon,” Violet Moon mused. “The Night Watchers have shown no movement lately. Hao Lianchuan is holed up in White Moon after being injured. Hou Xiaochen won’t take the field against some Darkmoons and Sunflare. According to the report, there is a mess of footprints at the scene. Their number indicates a group of people acting together, but they aren’t too strong...”

There wouldn’t be a group of people if a powerhouse had made a move.

“Is it Celestial or Yama?” asked Violet Moon. Other than those two, there was no other faction in Silver Moon who could send large numbers of people against forty supernaturals. Since the Night Watchers were confirmed to not be involved, they were naturally not in the course of consideration.

A couple Solars from other provinces raged in the hall. “Celestial and Yama have quite the nerve! They can’t wait to pile on the misery when we’re down on our luck. Milord Blue Moon, why don’t we seek out some of their bases and take revenge! They’ll think Red Moon is an easy target if we don’t knock them down a few pegs!”

“That’s right!”

“Should we send someone to Skywave Lake, like those skilled at tracking and tracing? Perhaps they’ll find something. It only happened last night, so it’s not like all the traces are gone yet even if the ones who did it got away!”

Red Moon was immensely fortified by strong forces at the moment. Large numbers of their people had convened in the province, but they’d still lost one of their important strongholds. It infuriated the Solars from various areas; they were already harboring grievances from being targeted by people stronger than them. They’d gathered at Silver Moon to find strength in numbers, so how was this still happening??

Blue Moon also looked on with an unpleasant expression. These people were much too bold. Red Moon was the greatest faction in the province at the moment. No one dared refute an organization with nearly one thousand supernaturals! There were a dozen Solars in this hall alone and more arrived everyday.

Just when he thought that no one would dare provoke them in the short term, reality slapped him upside the head. This was a blatant slap in the face!

“Don’t be in a hurry to come to conclusions yet,” Blue Moon took a breath and recovered his calm. “It may not be Celestial and Yama. While the three great organizations are not of one body and mind, this is not the time for open hostilities either. Our enemy is not too weak given that our Skywave Lake base has been destroyed. We must still conduct our investigation. Jin Jiu and Duan Chao, take some supernaturals skilled at tracking to the site...”

“They might have Solars with them if they were able to destroy that base,” said Violet Moon. “And there may be more than one. While our two leaders are Solars, they may not be able to defeat the enemy in an encounter.”

Blue Moon first nodded, then shook his head. “It’s just an investigation, there’s no need to come in contact with the other if there’s real danger. We can’t send too many people as Hou Xiaochen and the rest of the four institutions have just met again. I’ve received word that they’ll conduct an even more thorough cleansing over the past two days. Hao Lianchuan, Hu Dingfang, Wang Henggang, and the Silver Moon Guards that we’ve only heard about before will all be participating. We must be ready.”

The official authorities of Silver Moon were stirring to action once more. If Red Moon sent out too many Solars, they wouldn’t have enough capacity left for this battlefront.

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