Star Gate

Blood frothed and churned inside Li Hao’s body. Given his domineering organs, the young man felt no pain or searing sensations from the blood’s activity. His five visceral organs were too strong and five blood pearls only amounted to a Solar’s level of energy. He could withstand this degree of discomfort.

Since there wasn’t much pressure being brought to bear, he swiftly swallowed a sixth, seventh, and eighth blood pearl until pressure mounted to significant levels.

Blood boiled within his veins and he could feel metamorphosis beginning within his body. It was as if a vast river rushed toward his organs. Li Hao could sense the existence of his supernatural locks. One, two, three...

Five locks appeared over his visceral organs—that was just the beginning. Four more appeared over his four limbs, making for nine that’d materialized in the blink of an eye. They were all incredibly thick and sturdy.

According to Wang Ming’s explanations, the number of supernatural locks one sensed represented one’s supernatural potential. But that was meaningless to Li Hao. Immense blood qi surged into the supernatural locks to make them even stronger. He believed only his teacher. The supernatural locks represented the depth of one’s foundations. The stronger they were, the more foundation they secured.

If there came a day in which he broke through his locks with martial dao, it would be an unfathomable ascension to the other side. Therefore, despite the locks visibly growing stronger, Li Hao had no intention of stopping his intake of energy. Absorb it all! The stronger the better!

The stronger they were, the less likely that melding auras, summoning spirits, and spirits emerging from the organs would shatter his locks. He would not be forced into the crossover. In his current condition, Li Hao didn’t have the slightest desire for the supernatural.

Hence, the stronger his locks were, the more confident he was. It didn’t affect his strength at all.

Seeing that his supernatural locks were smoothly absorbing the blood qi, Li Hao popped the remaining two blood pearls into his mouth. When all ten sat in his stomach, the power of a Nova scarlet shadow erupted within.

Crack crack crack sounded from his bones! They were unable to endure the strain and a searing pain began spreading through his body.

A mysterious power stone rolled out of Li Hao’s mouth as he opened it. It was a thunder attributed mysterious power; he wasn’t using it to replenish the little sword this time. The thunder element tempered the bones, of that he was aware of, he just rarely came into possession of a thunder stone.

This was no time to consider how precious mysterious power stones were. He devoured the thunder energy inside and used sword energy to extract thunder elemental power. It was much more pure than mysterious power. The thunder energy burrowed into his bones the second it became one with him.

Rumble!!

Thunder roared inside him as Li Hao’s bones were tinged with purple. This was the effect of thunder and lightning tempering the bones! His bones continued to crack and pop.

The young man shot to his feet and ran through a boxing routine from the tiger style of the Five Styles. It was easy to punch with sound, but incredibly difficult to punch silently. In order to avoid drawing attention from creating too much of a disturbance, Li Hao began practicing soundless punches. His teacher was much better than him in this regard. When his teacher swung, he did so without the slightest sound like he was going through a fitness routine for the elderly.

No matter how Li Hao restrained himself, he still created a bit of sound. Thankfully, it wasn’t too apparent. Not to mention no one dared to make trouble for him since he was in Hao Lianchuan’s office.

His fists darted forward like thunder and lightning!

So fast! But speed didn’t mean silence. It was a contradictory notion that Li Hao wouldn’t be able to attain unless he swiftly retracted his fist’s force as soon as he punched out, condensing it on itself.

A very soft bam could be heard inside the room. Li Hao ignored it and continued practicing, facilitating the digestion of his new gains. He didn’t care if the secret Nova powerhouse beneath him could hear; what he was demonstrating wasn’t too strong. A Sunderer could indeed deploy this kind of attack. He also didn’t particularly care about where he trained, so he didn’t mind if others could see him.

Energy from a scarlet shadow continued to erupt in his body—the energy density of a Nova was far more than one could imagine. Supernatural looks continued to materialize and strengthen throughout his body.

Clatter!!

Chains seemed to drag through the room as locks appeared and secured Li Hao in place. There were even some locks that began appearing over his head.

Nine?

Far more than that!

The potential of the human body was unlimited. Not only did the five visceral organs and four limbs have supernatural locks, but so did other parts of the body. Li Hao could even sense a massive lock floating upward from his spine.

He was in a wonderful mood as he continued absorbing thunder energy to temper his bones. The scarlet shadow continued to strengthen his internal force, blood qi, body, and supernatural locks. He could sense his blood qi growing ever more colossal and abundant!

......

Downstairs.

Manager Yu tilted her head upward for a look. Her eyes seemed to peer through the ceiling and capture the sight of Li Hao. She saw the young man practicing a boxing method from the Five Styles. It wasn’t too fast as there weren’t too many afterimages of the fist.

And yet... Manager Yu frowned slightly. Had he taken a blood pearl? How many did he take?

He wasn’t displaying the aura or projecting his internal force, just practicing the boxing method. Under such circumstances, it was difficult to detect a martial master’s strength. That was most often discerned in a fight.

But as a powerhouse, Manager Yu could still sense some clues. An eyebrow raised as she observed.

“Dominator?” She knew that the young man was a Dominator, but it was hard to tell what kind he was. There were many Dominators. The weakest was the type like Liu Long—a Dominator with one aura, untempered organs, and nondescript blood qi. Those slightly stronger had undergone changes in their blood, improvements to their bones, and were beginning to nurture their organs.

Those even stronger like He Yong entered Dominator with one aura, but had undergone numerous blood transfusions, were sound of bone and body, and had started tempering their organs. Dominators beyond that was Yuan Shuo’s previous condition. He’d melded his five auras together and was incredibly domineering.

What level was Li Hao?

It was hard to judge as she didn’t know how many blood pearls he’d taken. Three or five? It wouldn’t be all ten as he wouldn’t be able to endure the rush of energy. That was Nova level strength! Even regular Solars would be hard pressed to withstand it. It was only possible if Li Hao’s physical body had reached a Solar level.

...was that possible? Manager Yu sank into deep contemplation and silently sensed the room above hers.

When it came to Li Hao, people only cared about his bloodline as an heir to the eight families and his status as Yuan Shuo’s disciple. The rest was negligible. While he was strong in the eyes of mundanes, particularly as he’d killed Sun Moxian, he was just a martial master yet to reach Dominator to those who were truly strong.

No matter how capable this kind of martial master was, they were barely on par with Sunflare. There were so many powerhouses in White Moon these days that Sunflare was hardly worth attention.

Perhaps... he’s stronger than what we think.

......

Time passed bit by bit. Li Hao steadily punched again and again. A Nova’s energy would not be consumed so quickly. Not to mention, he was also taking in energy from mysterious power stones at the same time. Instead of the five elements, he was focusing on thunder and wind. Thunder tempered the bones and wind made the body lighter.

If he couldn’t raise his speed concurrently with his strength, all he would amount to was target practice for others. He’d been more concerned with physical strength before not because he didn’t care for speed, but because he didn’t have much wind energy. He possessed some wind attributed mysterious power stones now. Li Hao drew directly from them, not minding the consumption.

He only had twelve stones left now, including the one that Yu Xiao had given him. It wasn’t much and the little sword continued to be depleted of energy.

After some more training, he exhausted the thunder and wind stones. He only had seven left, five of which were the five elements. Of the other two, one was pitch black and the other icy cool. He didn’t dare brashly draw from them because they might be of the dark and ice attributes. There was a lot of energy contained within the stones; he would start with mysterious power first and draw from the stones only after he knew their effects.

He would feed the five elements to the little sword. Sword energy was the true heart of what he was.

......

Hao Lianchuan was busy all morning. His schedule didn’t clear up until noon, which was when he prepared to return to his office to rest. However, he frowned slightly when he approached the door—there were some noises coming from inside.

Li Hao?

Most likely!

The guy was done for the day. He could’ve gone home after the meeting or taken a walk around White Moon. And yet, Li Hao hadn’t. He was a workaholic and didn’t leave the office until the day was over!

But headquarters was small, so there was no place for the young man. He didn’t have duties he needed to take care of either.

Is he training in my office then? Hao Lianchuan pushed the door open. The light immediately faded from Li Hao’s eyes and he listlessly punched outward. All the same, Hao Lianchuan was a Solar, so he sensed something quite piercing when he stood near Li Hao.

The deputy director glanced at the young man; Li Hao was still going through a boxing routine.

“Director, I needed to borrow your office because I don’t have any place to go. You don’t mind, do you?”

Hao Lianchuan nodded indifferently and put down his briefcase. He sat down on the sofa to the side and poured a cup of tea, watching Li Hao as the young man continued to practice. The latter’s bones reverberated faintly, sounding like the bones and meridians resonating with each other, as customary of the Slayer level.

The deputy director set that out of his mind, focusing on the traces left in the office air. They were very faint, but delivered a piercing pain whenever he drew near them. He didn’t interrupt Li Hao, just continued watching silently.

The young man practiced as if no one was around him; there was still a third left of the scarlet shadow to digest. He’d made his way through only two thirds of it in the morning, but he was digesting at a faster rate as the energy decreased. His organs were much stronger than before, but that was only part of it. More importantly was that his bones felt much more formidable than before.

Blood roared through his veins and he almost had an impulse to punch Hao Lianchuan. Would he be able to fight a Solar without using his aura?