Star Gate

Just the Night Watchers of Skystar City alone numbered in the thousands. Combined with those of other parts of the central region meant that there were thirty thousand Night Watchers in the territory. This was a massive number of personnel that wasn’t just paid in gold coins—mysterious power and mysterious power stones were necessary.

The other four continents could be ignored, but the central region had always fallen under Skystar City’s jurisdiction. The Ministry of Finance digging their heels in didn’t just affect the royal city. When all of the Night Watchers didn’t receive their salary, they would blame Hou Xiaochen and Li Hao, not the Ministry of Finance. It would be the duo’s fault for courting death!

……

Hou Xiaochen walked off without further addressing his colleagues. Manager Yu swiftly caught up to him with an unpleasant expression on her face.

“Director, this Yellow Dragon is exceedingly annoying,” she transmitted. “Why don’t we…”

“He’s a deputy director of the Night Watchers and a deputy inspector general.” Hou Xiaochen shook his head with a smile. That would cross some boundaries. If he could kill Yellow Dragon, then the others could throw away all of the rules and come kill him as well.

This was something that the nine ministers and royal family would not permit. They would at least ensure that the rules of the central region were not broken. It was the foundation of the dynasty’s rule.

Killing intent faded from Manager Yu’s eyes. She really wanted to kill that guy… but sadly, she couldn’t. “Then I’ll visit the Colosseum tonight…” she transmitted.

“Let’s wait!” Hou Xiaochen breathed out and frowned at the city outskirts. Had Li Hao really run off? I don’t believe it! The guy wouldn’t run away so easily since he’d dared come to the royal city. Perhaps something had come up, or perhaps he’d gone for reinforcements. Maybe he was in closed door cultivation or there was some other reason.

Whatever it was, Hou Xiaochen trusted that Li Hao wouldn’t disappear without giving a reason.

……

At the same time.

Li Hao’s group traveled incredibly quickly. With Li Hao present, they easily avoided the patrols and even Night Watchers safeguarding the seas. Skystar Sea was an inland sea. There was a high number of patrols here, but they were as obvious as blinding lights to the young man.

The headquarters of the Four Seas Company was placed on an island in the Skystar Sea. The entire island belonged to the trading company. They’d modified it to a near paradise.

The group drew near the island before long. Resplendent with blazing lights, a loud din of voices rose from land. Being familiar with the Four Seas Company, Yang Shan introduced it in the armor’s internal channel.

“Not only does the Four Seas Company have a colossal fleet of ships that sails the four seas, but their headquarters is also a renowned den of entertainment and pleasure. Here, you can find gambling houses, whore houses, underground fighting rings, and anything else you can wish for!

“This is a good place for consumption as it has local wares from the four continents for sale. There’s even sea monster spirits present. The trading company can achieve anything you can think of. Your imagination is the only limit.

“Many people know that this is also where pirates transact…”

“Pirates dare draw near Skystar City to conduct their business?” Li Hao transmitted through the armor.

“There’s nothing daring about it!” Yang Shan responded unflappably. “They stay outside the city. Even if they enter the city, no one will care about them so long as they keep their noses clean! There’s a certain degree of security in transacting at the Four Seas Company, but that means they have to pay a high commission to the company. The pirates don’t care though, since they didn’t have to pay anything for their wares.

“The most famous out of everything on the island is the auction house! It goes without saying that various treasures are for sale, but there’s also women available. Heh, all kinds of women are there. You can have any type you want and those with a good appetite… can even buy monster spirits!”

Current monster spirits could not take human form. So if monster spirits were being auctioned off…

Li Hao shuddered and sneered, “So this is just a bigger nest of pirates! That’s good, that means there’s a lot of money and treasure here!”

He fished out a mirror fragment; a peculiar energy stretched toward the island in the distance. The young man drew closer—there was a limit to the range that this item covered, but he could see everything on the island through it.

Li Hao himself could see supernaturals, but he could not see martial masters. He wanted to investigate and see if there were many martial masters present, if there were powerfully domineering existences. He had to cover all his bases and prevent plots against him.

If the Ministry of Finance had foreseen that he was going to attack the Four Seas Company, they might be playing into his hands and arranged for an ambush here. That would be an incredible loss for him.

It wasn’t until he was almost at the island that the mirror showed the situation inside. Being a decently sized landmass, only part of it was shown. The young man saw many things from the reflection—the images were much clearer than what his eyes could show him.

Patrols dominated the perimeter of the island, some were even wearing Inspectorate and Night Watcher uniforms! There were also military uniforms and soldiers wearing the uniforms of the ministry’s private guard…

Its defenses were extremely strong!

Numerous ships were parked at the port and there seemed to be a faint defensive shield shimmering around the entire island. It was very faint, but one might be discovered as soon as they barged in. Li Hao jerked his head up at this moment—a large bird soared through overhead.

“Sink to the bottom of the sea!” he swiftly transmitted. The group immediately dove. “Their defenses are very tight. It goes without saying that the guard on land is heavy, but there’s even minor monster spirits patrolling the sky…”

He suddenly looked around as another thought struck him. As he expected, there were pinpoints of light in the sea.

“There might be sea monsters patrolling in the depths—where do so many minor spirits come from!” Li Hao frowned. The Four Seas Company were on high alert to have patrols in land, sea, and air. They would be quickly discovered in a moment of carelessness and attract powerhouses.

“Based on the information I obtained from the Nine Dragons Pavilion, Wu Yong is the boss of the company and a metamorphosis expert. He has four vice presidents beneath him that oversee operations in the four seas. They’re all of the Nova realm and span from late to peak Nova. Additionally, he also has captains of the guard. They sometimes go out on missions, sometimes stay at the island. Counting Wu Yong among the mix means that there are nine Novas!”

This was the sum of the company’s strongest battle force. Was that weak?

Not at all!

Five Novas and one metamorphosis expert backed by the Ministry of Finance was a formidable force.

“They may not all be here, but a couple should be standing guard. It’d be best if they were all present!” Li Hao watched the mirror as he introduced the enemy to his team. He’d identified a building structure with numerous supernaturals inside. Some were resting, some were playing cards. That should be the guard—they were of no threat.

He lifted his head to look at the island and located some balls of light that belonged to Novas. Fixing their location in his mind, he continued, “We’re going to capture them in one go!”

“……” He Yong and the others blinked. Capture them in one go? He had to be joking! How could they do that with the size of this island?

All the enemy had to do was scatter in various directions to make it impossible for them to accomplish that. Even with the four of them guarding one cardinal direction each, they might not be able to capture all of their targets and would have to remain on guard against being mobbed by the enemy.

“It’s fine, don’t worry. My treasure can create something like a cage and envelop the entire island with it. It can withstand Novas if the range is small enough, but even Solars will be able to break it if it’s stretched too much. Therefore, we only need to kill all of the Novas and Solars to prevent anyone from getting away!”

The metamorphosis Red Beard and his Nova subordinates hadn’t been able to break the shield formed by the mirror. It was just a costly treasure that took mysterious power stones to power.

“You’re going to kill them all??” He Yong transmitted with disbelief. “There’s at least ten thousand people on the island…’

“How would I!” Li Hao laughed. “There must be Skystar nobles on the island. We’re a law enforcement agency, not robbers! We can’t kill everyone just because they’re here for some fun, some happy endings, or gambling. That’d be a grave offense to too many factions!”

So you know that too, huh!

“We’ll capture them all and have their families ransom them back! We’ll also get them to accuse the Four Seas Company and write confessionals. With these witnesses and capturing some pirates, that will solidify the company’s crimes! We must execute this flawlessly as we are not bandits. Remember, we are a law enforcement agency!”

He reminded once again that they could not randomly kill people. They needed to be backed up by evidence.

“Additionally, we need to prevent them from using transmission pendants. I don’t know if those will be out of commission after we seal off the island, but we should be prepared for powerhouses to rush here from Skystar City. If they’re quick about it, it will only take them about ten minutes. We have to kill all of the cretin that dares resist during this time!”

“Understood!” He Yong smiled. “Who would’ve thought that you’d be more vigilant than before…”

“There’s no harm done in being careful!” Li Hao gave his orders. “Senior Qin Lian, you are adept with dark energy. You and Panther are in charge of killing all fleeing powerhouses. Southern Fist and Senior Yang Shan are in charge of killing the powerhouses in the island. I’ll shout out their locations to everyone!”

As for himself, he would hold himself in reserve and see if any martial masters suddenly appeared within the island. Powerful martial masters would be the greatest trouble. After a quick round of assignment, Li Hao looked at the dog. Panth looked back at him with a look of innocence.

“I want you to fully release the power of your bloodline in a moment when I say so—suppress all of the monster spirits! Make all of the monster spirits inside and out of the island spontaneously rage out of control!”

He had to make use of Panther’s ability, it was a convenient skill. The dog nodded. It’d eaten so much that it was time to go to work, it understood that logic. Not to mention, raiding such a fat target meant that there would be more to eat later!

Li Hao began waiting for the night to grow deeper and the sky to become darker.

……

On Four Seas Island.

A faint unease prickled at numerous powerhouses. It was very faint, but some of them made a brief patrol and returned without discovering anything. Not even the bird and sea monster spirits demonstrated any response. There was no disturbance in the special formation covering the island.

They were much reassured by these confirmations. The Four Seas Company dominated the lands, who dared run afoul of them? The Hou Xiaochen who wanted to take down Skystar Colosseum had fallen flat on his face. He was the laughingstock of the royal city!

etvolare’s Thoughts

I think it’s a brilliant move to utilize Panther’s bloodline.