Star Gate

Li Hao swept all of the mysterious power stones into a storage ring without further word. This greatly alleviated his burdens, but Mu Lin swiftly offered up a thousand more storage rings. These were the ones that remained after the Guards chose their own.

The young man himself already had nearly one hundred rings. They were all from prior operations. He smiled ruefully at the long string of storage rings. Since when did he become someone who received a headache for too many storage rings?

He accepted them after some thought. He could keep them for now. There was a pocket inside the armor. Although it was a bit full at the moment, that was fine. Li Hao swept a glance over the Silver Moon Guards.

They’d possessed almost one hundred half step Dominators before, but didn’t have many actual Dominators. Those were only the nine centurions, Golden Spear, Mu Lin, the captain of Golden Spear’s personal guard and the disciple of Berserk Blade, as well as Kong Jie’s daughter.

Li Hao didn’t see the latter on his visit. I wonder where they’ve gone off to? It was rumored that Berserk Blade had also come to the central region, but Li Hao hadn’t caught a glimpse of that man yet.

The Guards’ overall strength seemed to have increased after a month in the dynasty capital. There were nearly two hundred half step Dominators and many more Dominators had appeared amongst the teams.

Li Hao studied them for a while, thought about his words, then began with, “Life is difficult in Skystar City, isn’t it?”

That’s true. Mu Lin looked back sheepishly. Things had been fine back in Silver Moon. The Guards were very strong; a team of one hundred could certainly handle a Solar. When working in tandem to manifest the formation of one thousand people, the regular composite of the Guards could face a Nova.

But what was that worth in Skystar City?

Strictly speaking, half step Dominators were barely the equivalent of Plenilune. They were less than Sunflares. Granted, they were outfitted with black armor—the Guard had nearly five hundred sets.

Hou Xiaochen had taken the most when one thousand Battle Heaven troops fell in the battlefield. Li Hao had claimed one hundred, leaving the rest for the three great organizations to squabble over. Unfortunately for those factions, they didn’t have the authorization to fully activate the black armor.

In this regard, the only aspect that the Silver Moon Guards held an advantage in was that their defenses were slightly stronger. Li Hao also had one thousand sets of Voidbreaker armor, but he hadn’t found the right way to accessing them. Perhaps his authorization was insufficient, or some other reason was at play.

“That’s exactly it!” The heir to Mountain Ax picked up the conversation. A note of suffering crept into his voice. “Let’s leave it at that since this is the central region. There are too many supernaturals here—Sunflares and Solars are available by the handful and Novas are frequently seen as well. We are naturally invincible compared to regular troops, but when it comes to the elites that major factions have raised… Well, they have people, money, and a stunning amount of resources. We do not measure up to that!”

A mere Silver Moon could not support so many, but the central region was where the wealth of the world collected. It was far beyond the capabilities of those such as Hou Xiaochen to compare to.

Li Hao had originally found the benefits of the Silver Moon Guard to be stunningly incredible. But now he realized… they weren’t much. No one would know how prosperous the central region was without making a trip for themselves.

“That’s just as well,” Mu Lin said with a mixture of emotions. “Mysterious power is much more dense here and while we cannot rely on this energy like the supernaturals do, it being present in large quantities results in a faster rate of progress in our daily cultivation.

“You see it as well that we have many new half step Dominators and a few who’s made the breakthrough…” Mu Lin chuckled. “At least we’ll be impressive enough against the Skystar Colosseum!”

Li Hao laughed and looked at the others. “Think on it, everyone. I am about to establish a Skystar Commander Office. Why don’t you come help me there?”

“……” The crowd blinked with incomprehension, as did Mu Lin.

“Um… what about the director?” he ventured after a pause.

“The director?” Li Hao merrily stroked his chin. “He is the principal commander, I am his vice commander. Of course the director is still the boss.”

“Then… is there any difference in treatment?” Mu Lin looked carefully. What do you mean by all this??

“There’s a bit of a difference.” Li Hao bared his teeth in a smile. “The elites of the Silver Moon Guard can choose to join my Demon Hunters troop. You will receive some additional benefits and treatment. I won’t be taking too many, just five hundred at most!

“The overall structure won’t change, but my Demon Hunters might expand and move up in ranks. Our full complement would be one thousand people per formation…”

Mu Lin listened with aching teeth. He sized up Li Hao again and again without saying a word.

“Think about it!” Li Hao declared happily. “We’re all on the same team so there’s no rush. Ah, yes, there are so many benefits to joining the Demon Hunters.

“For example, the defensive capabilities of your black armor will be greatly enhanced due to it being fully activated. That’s just one such benefit! Second, your chances of becoming a Dominator are immensely increased! Third, everyone stands a very strong chance of becoming a Summoner of Spirit after that stage. That’s right, my teacher has fully understood Summoner of Spirit and everyone can cultivate it.

“Fourth, I have a unique army formation that requires only five people to operate. Your combined strength will improve immensely! Currently, a team of one hundred can only take on Solars. After you join the Demon Hunters, I am confident that a team can handle initial Novas with no problem!

“This is all based on our current foundations. Once everyone breaks through, I dare promise that a one hundred person team can fight enemies at least two cultivation levels higher! For instance, if everyone’s a Dominator, they are the equivalent of Sunflare at most. But if they coordinate well, they’ll be able to fight metamorphoses, if not Arcanus!”

One hundred Dominators fighting in unison, their blood qi intermixed and their armor activated… Was there hope in taking down a metamorphosis then?

Yes!

Li Hao was well aware of the possibility and if he helped a martial master set foot into Dominator, then they wouldn’t be far off from Summoner of Spirit. The accomplishments then would be even more incredible.

Too few Demon Hunters had stayed in Silver Moon! Li Hao hadn’t wanted to recruit more before, but now he realized the benefits of strength in numbers. What use was there in individual Sunderers? But what about one hundred, one thousand, or ten thousand Sunderers?

Didn’t Liu Yunqing say that the people’s heart wasn’t good for anything. Bullshit!

One hundred thousand ordinary people in armor could intermix their blood qi if they knew the most basic of operating methods. All humans possessed blood qi. At that time, one hundred thousand people could kill a Nova! And he was talking about mundanes!

One about one million, ten million people? One hundred million? Mundanes abounded in this world!

Granted, sufficient armor and equipment would be a very big problem. Li Hao didn’t have many available sets left on him—a dozen black armors at best. The Silver Moon Guards, though, had five hundred more.

He painted a grandiose picture with mundanes, but he couldn’t really send mundanes against Novas. However, any with a bit of martial foundation that didn’t need to start from zero could easily set foot into Slayer of Tens. In this era, it was easy to reach Sunderer of Hundreds. There were no bottlenecks below half step Dominator.

In that case, ten thousand Sunderers were sufficient to easily suppress a metamorphosis. There wouldn’t be any difficulty to it—they could even battle Arcanus!

Liu Yunqing’s words rankled Li Hao, the young man didn’t accept it! Who said that the people’s heart was worthless?? Bullshit! It was useful! If they dared and were willing, ordinary people could still go against the current and rise up!

He even had some thoughts about the thousand in front of him. They were decently strong with numerous half step Dominators. If they all learned the Ten Rings Mountain Seal Formation and incorporated their blood qi into his body, he would dare fight an Arcanus if he was the heart of the formation!

He’d thought that these guys weren’t reliable before. Now that he looked at them, mm, they were alright. At the very least, they were more dependable than those not of Silver Moon.

Li Hao was thinking of staging a coup—bah, he meant to say that he wanted to tend to Hou Xiaochen’s army for him. Ole Hou seemed to be poor. As for why he hadn’t told Hou Xiaochen of his intentions earlier… The young man couldn’t be bothered since Hou Xiaochen seemed to be standing outside of the complex walls, listening in on them.

It looked like the man wanted to rush inside to beat Li Hao up.

……

The crowd’s breathing grew more rapid as they listened to Li Hao. Setting foot into Dominator, then Summoner, a unique formation, activated armor…

Oh my heavens!

Even Mu Lin was slightly moved. He quickly came back to his senses and smiled with difficulty, turning down the young man’s proposal. “Ah… we can’t make the call in this… Commander Li, you… you should go ask the director and Boss Golden Spear… We can’t do this on our own…”

Multiple faces dimmed with his refusal, but they didn’t make a sound. That was right! They wanted to grow stronger, but they were raised by Hou Xiaochen. Could they bite the hand that fed them and turn on their own master?

It was also due to Li Hao speaking these words that they considered it. The young man was part of their system and a fellow Silver Moon martial master. He was the acting ranking officer in Golden Spear’s absence, a deputy director of the Night Watchers… And he was on good terms with Hou Xiaochen.

They wouldn’t be tempted otherwise.

“Are you sure you won’t think about it?” Li Hao chuckled. “As for the director, he won’t say anything since we’re all here. I don’t need everyone at present, just half. Only those with armor need to come. If you want to stay, you can give your armor to those who want to leave. Don’t we all eat out of the same pot?”

“Um… it’s better to ask the director first!” Mu Lin said hesitantly.

Li Hao grinned.

etvolare’s Thoughts

Lol @ a recruitment spiel with HXC listening in from the outside.