Star Gate

“Hahaha!” Laughter reverberated around the sea. A group of people scattered in various directions, their limits as high as they wished to soar. They were as free as fish darting through the vast seas.

Damn it felt good!

Silver Moon martial masters had been quiet for far too long. A bunch of premier martial masters had jointly killed the eastern overlord Xu Qing today; they were all jubilant about it!

It’s your fault for killing Deficient Leg!

When viewed in a complimentary light, Silver Moon martial masters were a group of heavyweights who pursued freedom. When spoken of bluntly, they were a bunch of bandits with some bottom lines—but these bottom lines weren’t all that righteous. Killing one of their own from the shadows, however, was a step over that line.

If Xu Qing had defeated Deficient Leg in open combat, the group might’ve jeered at Deficient Leg for being trash and bringing shame down on Silver Moon. Losing to an outsider in a match was well deserving of death.

This was a perfect example of how complicated Silver Moon martial masters were, and how they practiced double standards. But today, they’d all come in person to save Li Hao!

Silver Moon martial masters could be killed, but not in this manner. Also, Xu Qing could not bully those weaker or younger than him. Even though it was Li Hao who’d created trouble for him, he should’ve sent a disciple of the same generation against the young man!

Mmhmm, these martial masters were shameless and proud of it! Their laughter counted to echo over the waters.

“I’ll be off then,” Northern Fist chortled. “Li Hao, as a Silver Moon martial master, you must respect custom! We’re labeled as savages because of you guys who don’t follow the rules. Be a good lad, I hope we meet under different circumstances next time. Couldn’t you have gotten some sort of decree from Zhao before you charged at the Xus? Something like the Xus are rebelling, that they shelter bandits or collude with pirates. There were a ton of possibilities, all of which concluded with you eliminating them on behalf of the dynasty! Now it’s you who’s more like the bandit. Tsk tsk!”

He vanished after delivering the rebuke. Northern Fist and Tyrant Blade hadn’t unsealed themselves much and didn’t fight for too long after appearing. They didn’t need Li Hao’s help and no one within the group looked at their peers with any sort of friendliness. Hence, none of them would stay to chat after the fighting and killing were over.

The thought didn’t cross their mind!

Not to mention, Yuan Shuo was still here. They couldn’t be bothered with a second look at the old thing. They didn’t even greet him! Northern Fist didn’t address Yuan Shuo and Tyrant Blade was even more aloof—he left without a word. They did not walk the same paths!

Although Silver Moon martial masters appeared firmly united in the outside world, once back home, there might be news of them killing each other the next day. If strength levels were similar, it was equally likely to hear of Tyrant Blade fighting Northern Fist to the death, Northern Fist punching Light Sword’s life force out, or Light Sword slashing Southern Fist to pieces…

This group was just that ludicrous.

While Northern Fist and Tyrant Blade could leave, Hong Yitang and Light Sword could not. They’d unsealed quite a bit of themselves and needed Li Hao’s help to suppress their power again. Thus, four humans and one dog traveled together at this time.

Yuan Shuo looked at the other two contemptuously! Even though he was weaker than Hong Yitang and Light Sword, he was disdainful all the same. Neither did the two want to look at him. Hong Yitang was comfortable enough, but Light Sword assiduously evaded Yuan Shuo’s direction. Everytime she caught a glimpse of the old man, she also saw him sneer at her like he wanted to hit her.

As expected, the old fart loved his grudges. He must be recalling the news that’d disseminated before about Light Sword bullying Li Hao.

The young man could also sense the strange atmosphere in the group. These guys had just worked together beautifully moments ago to kill an enemy. Now that the enemy was dead, why did it seem like they’d turn on each other just as quickly? Hong Yitang was normal enough, but his master… Why did he look at Hong Yitang with enmity?

Hong Yitang was quite coolly composed, shooting over the East Sea with relaxed ease. Meanwhile, Yuan Shuo sneered coldly. Hong Yitang knew why the old man did so and treated him to a bland expression. Inwardly, however, he jeered right back. That’s right, be jealous. Are you afraid that your disciple is about to disappear?

Heh!

You’re the one who ran off to the central region. If you hadn’t appeared for this fight, your disciple might be my disciple after a while longer. Heh!!

Granted, Hong Yitang wasn’t really interested in stealing disciples. The kid also stirred up too much trouble! Hong Yitang couldn’t handle it all—he’d already fought a few fights on the young man’s behalf over the past couple of days. The kid was more combative than Yuan Shuo, so it was just as well that the two roamed throughout the world together!

Apart from the continuously whimpering Panther, the group traveled in silence. Li Hao and Yuan Shuo were both quite injured and the other two were laboring to keep their organs intact after unsealing themselves. They might give voice to their pain if they were alone, but at the moment, they forcefully kept their lips shut. They were in irritating company! Now was not the time to display weakness. They would die first before admitting to their suffering.

“Where are we going to rest?” Li Hao had to ask upon seeing that no one would be the first to speak. We have to find a place, don’t we? We can’t just drift over the sea forever. The three of you are in some sort of playing it cool contest—someone needs to come up with a location. We can’t just keep running with no destination in mind.

“Ask him!” Light Sword and Hong Yitang looked at Yuan Shuo. A smirk spread over his face.

“Someone who’s been digging holes and tunnels for decades will have bases in a lot of places. Maybe you’ve raided the graves in the sea. He must have gone to the eastern continent at some point and the East Sea as well. How else would he be able to fight Xu Qing otherwise?”

“Don’t put on airs just because you’ve lit up a few more locks!” The look in Yuan Shuo’s eyes turned cold. “Are the likes of you allowed to discuss my affairs?”

“That’s true, I won’t do so next time,” Hong Yitang responded placidly. “You’re older, after all, so we need to show you respect. Wouldn’t you say so, big brother Yuan?”

“……”

Li Hao didn’t make a peep. They aren’t going to start fighting right here, are they? They were fine with each other before! Hong Yitang’s temper is usually pretty good, so why does he seem to be in a bad mood today? He looks… to be picking a fight.

As for his master, the old demon had always been this cocky, so this was only to be expected. Meanwhile, it was like Light Sword was invisible. There even seemed to be schadenfreude lurking in the depths of her eyes. Fight fight fight! her eyes twinkled.

Silver Moon martial masters are definitely a weird bunch, the young man concluded.

Apart from exchanging a word with Yuan Shuo, no one even had the chance of seeing the supercilious Sky Sword. He’d suppressed the old duke with one move, then left. Then there was Northern Fist and his slightly hypocritical talk of the rules, and the flinty Tyrant Blade.

None of them were normal in Li Hao’s eyes, but of course their reinforcement was quite a thrilling feeling. They were all from Silver Moon at the end of the day. It was always particularly touching to see a fellow countryman. Those from the same origin were more reliable.

Yuan Shuo snorted and couldn’t be bothered to reply. He was still restrained to a certain degree in front of his own disciple. It was difficult to maintain the appearance of a noble, principled scholar. His disciple had always viewed him as a magnanimous and benevolent sort—he didn’t wish to destroy that mental image.

Li Hao had thought of his teacher in such a manner before, but he didn’t think that way now. His teacher was too deeply vested in his own act. If the young man still believed that his teacher was a cultured, refined, and kindly old man after hearing so many stories of his past exploits, then Li Hao would be an idiot.

“Let’s go to East Shore, I have a house there that I haven’t visited in a long time. I don’t know if it’s still there or if there’s people squatting in it.”

A knowing expression appeared on Hong Yitang’s face. He knew this was the case!

The group quickly altered their heading and flew toward East Shore.

……

Explosive news spread throughout the dynasty. All of its senior officials had enjoyed a good show today.

The Inspectorate.

The inspector general had returned and chuckled merrily at an intelligence report. “Like I said, one side must die when two tigers fight! Rest in peace! Alas, Xu Qing was too trash and the Xus too cowardly—they didn’t kill a single Silver Moon martial master! That was only half of a show, it wasn’t good enough!”

More should’ve died, which would then herald a war between Silver Moon and the Xus. They would then engage in an epic war and continuously bring out trump cards until the province was forced to summon their oldest, most secret powerhouses. They would be answered in kind, and their battles would drag in the rest of the east and north. Now that would be a show worth watching!

No one knew the inspector general’s thoughts. The people around him didn’t dare make a sound. The Night Watcher director and deputy director Yellow Dragon were both here. As the highest and second-in-command of their agencies, they were here to participate in a meeting of the senior ranks and analyze the fallout from this affair.

An important person had died—a first level provincial official, the overlord of the east. Certain attention still needed to be devoted to this matter. Otherwise, the dignity of the dynasty would lie in complete tatters. The Xus were one of the three founding dukes, after all.

“We should discuss the aftermath, inspector general,” Yellow Dragon raised. “Li Hao and the other Silver Moon bandits killed the Steadfast Duke. What do we do now?”

“The Steadfast Marquis!” corrected the inspector general with a frown. “Don’t ignore the earlier proclamation or simply treat it as a piece of paper! Xu Qing was wrong to fire the city annihilation missiles. It was a grave mistake to begin with, I don’t care if he did so for self defense or to kill enemies. That should not have happened! This is the punishment that the dynasty meted out to the Xus. If you use the wrong term of address again in an official setting, punishment will fall on your head as well!”

Yellow Dragon didn’t say a word. He dared talk back to the Night Watcher director, but he didn’t dare retort against the inspector general.

The nine ministries had been established eighty years ago and this one was the second inspector general. The first one was his father—his tenure had run for fifty years. This one possessed thirty years under his belt. None of the ministry leaders were easy characters to handle.

The inspector general didn’t continue after rebuking Yellow Dragon. He looked at the group, not interested in asking for their opinions. “How about this,” the inspector general smiled after some thought. “Send a document to Silver Moon. Don’t they want to promote Li Hao? It’s approved! Li Hao went to the east to eliminate bandits and earned a great merit of distinction for killing the East Sea pirate Red Beard!”

Yellow Dragon’s eyes widened.

“Additionally, put Earthturner Sword, Light Sword, Northern Fist, Tyrant Blade, and Old Demon Five Styles on the wanted list,” continued the inspector general. “They committed a grave crime in jointly killing the Steadfast Marquis. Have the Ministry of Armed Forces send out the Skystar Troops and call upon the Steppe Prince to assist. The royal family has an obligation to eliminate these bandits!

“Since the old duke is still alive, but his son is dead… Have him select another son to inherit the Steadfast Marquis title. He has many sons and the title remains his family’s!

“Ah, yes. The East Shore provincial government must bear responsibility for its province haphazardly firing missiles. Start with its director general and replace everyone including the commander-in-chief of the provincial armies, director of the Inspectorate, and director of the Night Watcher branch.

“Additionally, Sky Sword Mountain Villa… Forget it, Sky Sword only exchanged one move with the old duke. Sparring between supernaturals is a common occurrence, we don’t need to address it.”

And so it was quickly decided. The Silver Moon martial masters were wanted criminals, the Steadfast Marquis would be helmed by a new face, Li Hao was to be promoted, and the East Shore leadership to be shuffled…

etvolare’s Thoughts

New bets happening in Discord as suggested by Spidey and run by Emrys! Which of the eight families is Ying Hongyue (leader of Red Moon) from? This bet closes in ten chapters. Additionally, will Yuan Shuo or Li Hao complete their five auras first? This bet closes in five chapters. Please pop into Discord to join the shenanigans (channel name: Scintillating Giraffes)! We’re betting channel currency and Panther’s gender, lol.

Dummy and Spidey won the last bets, can you guys beat them? We’ll refine the souls of whoever loses, heh.